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Class __ELua_ 
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Copyright N° 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




HENRY FITCH BISHOP, D.D.S. 



Historical Sketch of 
Lisbon, Conn. 



From 1786 to 1900 



BY 

HENRY F. BISHOP 



Published by 
H. F. BISHOP, D.D.S. 

332 E. 88th Street, New York, N. Y. 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

OCT 16 1903 

Copyright tntry 
CLASS . CL XXc No 

copy a 



.L6E4 




Thanks are due to Mr. Calvin Dnane Bromley, present Town 
Clerk of Lisbon, for giving free access to all records, and to the 
late Rev. R. M. Chipman, whose unpublished manuscript contained 
much valuable data. 

H. F. B. 



Copyrighted 1903 kv H. F. Bishop. 



• PREFACE. 

In looking up the records of Lisbon's history, one finds very 
little help in any written historical descriptions thus far published. 
The explanation is to be found that she is so unimportant relatively 
with her larger sister towns. She has had a small, contracted terri- 
tory, a sparse population, and a short period of existence since 
she was incorporated into a separate town in 1786. This necessarily 
makes but a brief sketch of history when all of it is collected for 
publication. 

Barker's "Historical Collections," published in 1837, speaking 
"of all the towns in Connecticut," describing their geography, soil, 
inhabitants, churches, and manufacturing interests, gives about as 
good a description of Lisbon as is found anywhere, but it is only a 
half-page record. 

Hurd's "History of New London County," published in 1882. 
gives Lisbon's boundaries as follows: "On the north by Canterbury, 
\\ inclham County, east by Griswold, south by Preston, west by 
Norwich and Sprague." It only gives us two of its early settlers, 
"James Burnham, admitted as a settler in 1710," and "Benjamin 
Burnham, admitted as a settler in 1726." 

Having had a difficult task in research for genealogical informa- 
tion the last few years (with imperfect and fragmentary records), 
the writer has deemed it a fitting service to render his native town 
to more conveniently arrange for observation and preservation its 
records ; that hereafter students looking up family history may be 
greatly helped in finding what is needed, if it exists. Lisbon has a 
large representative body scattered through the States of the Lmion, 
descendants of her noble stock, who have to come back to her for 
biographical and genealogical family history. They have often 
turned away in despair that they could find so little to enlighten them. 

That delightful historical writer and author. Dr. Hale, of 
Boston, says, speaking of writers: "For one, I am much obliged 
to anybody who tries to make it easy for me to read," and again he 
makes the following memorandum: "X. B. When you know any- 
thing worth knowing, which few other people know, write it down a! 
lonce." 

If I have failed to fulfil the idea of the first quoted paragraph, 
as doubtless I have, may I not hope in some small measure to rescue 
some facts which would have been otherwise lost to posterity? 
The effort has cost me much thought, time, and labor, to which my 
townsmen are welcome if they will but look lightly upon my failure 
to have made a more interesting and perfect sketch. 

HEXRYL BISHOP. D.D.S. 

332 East 88th St., New York, July. 1903, 



CHAPTER I. 



It is the intention of the writer to give herewith a short historical 
sketch of Lisbon, both before and after its incorporation as a town 
in 1786 — down to the present time. 

Its history prior to its incorporation as a separate town was iden- 
tified wholly within the town of Norwich. 

Its importance was duly appreciated by the people of that ven- 
erable town. Norwich, which gave abundant evidence of her esteem 
for the worthy inhabitants of this part of her territory, sharing with 
them the responsibilities of conducting their government, seeking 
the most eminent and efficient talent among her best citizens in all 
their councils to meet the trying times of the period of our revolu- 
tionary war. The situation of this active territory of Norwich and 
vicinity was peculiar ; so closely connected with the exposed city of 
New London on the one side ( causing therefore anxiety and fear ) . 
and of Lebanon on the other side, where ''Brother Jonathan" 1 Wash- 
ington's friend ) lived, thereby giving hope and encouragement to 
the inhabitants, who had already been struggling for life and liberty 
with King George the Third for many previous years. 

This part of Norwich quite distinguished herself by her pa- 
triotism : she enrolled upon her records some quite eminent officers 
and soldiers in our revolutionary war. some of whom never lived to 
see the glorious results which came out of their devotion to their 
country for which they gave their precious lives. 

Reviewing Lisbon for its hundred years' existence as a town, is 
not so much a task of searching its town records for its history ; 
as to take up its ecclesiastical parishes and give them a fair view 
of their important influences upon the inhabitants of the said town. 
Nearly all prominent men and persons of influence in those days were 
actively connected with their local churches in that early period 
1 if our history. 

Thus necessarily we must take into view these component parts 
from which Lisbon's antecedents had already existed, and from 
which it was possible to create and make a new town from the Nor- 
wich societies. Newent and Hanover were familiar names before 
Lisbon was known, or had any significance in this locality. 

The historian of Norwich relates that in 1718 sixteen persons 
enrolled among its inhabitants were denoted "Farmers settled in ye 
crotch of ve Rivers." but these families of farmers, which included 
women, children, servants, and helpful mechanics, must have num- 
bered at least sixty, or even more than seventy people. These set- 
tlers had now come to a conviction that thev needed an assemblv for 



public worship, and were willing and ready to make appropriate ef- 
forts to secure one near their own homes. So in May of the year 
1 718 a petition was presented to the Colonial Legislature bearing 
the following names : 



Thomas Walbridge, 
Samuel Bishop, 
Josiah Reed, 
William Reed, 
Daniel Longbottom, 
Eliezer Jewett, 
David Knight, 
David Knight, Jr., 
George Rood, 
John Lamb, 
Samuel Rood, 
J abes h Rood, 
John Bacon, 
Moses Hagget, 



William Adams, 
Nathaniel Dean, 
Joseph Read, 
John Bishop, 
Isaac Larance, 
Isaac Larance, Jr., 
Samuel Lothrop. 
John Read, 
Samuel Coy, 
Jeremiah Tracy, 
Francis Tracy, 
William Walbridge, 
Timothy Allen. 



The humble petition of the farmers on the Northeasterly part 
of Norwich called the Crotch of the River, to the Honorable Gen- 
eral Assembly, now sitting. 

"Whereas our habitations have been, by the Providence of 
God, very remote from the place of public worship, not only by reason 
of the distance, but by reason of a great river, which is not only 
difficult, but at all time dangerous to cross, and for which reason 
we have obtained liberty from the town to be a distinct society from 
them. We, whose names are underwritten with the rest of our 
inhabitants do humbly pray this honorable General Assembly will 
grant us the liberty of being a distinct society from them of the town 
plot, so as to call and settle an orthodox minister to be with us and 
to dispense to us the ordinances of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. If we may have your establishment of us in the capacity of 
a society so as to have the liberty and benefit of the law to advan- 
tage us to maintain a minister and we hope we shall improve the same 
to the honor of God and to our spiritual profit. We, the subscribers 
do humbly pray for your favorable answer to this our petition." 

The reply came as follows : 

"At a general Assembly holden in Hartford, in his Majesty's 
colony of Connecticut in New England on Thursday, the 8th day of 
May in the fourth year of the reign of our Sovereign, Lord 
George, King of Great Britain, etc., A. D. 17 18. — Upon consideration 
of the farmers inhabiting between the rivers Quinabaug and Shou- 
tucket on the Northeasterly part of the town of Norwich : This As- 
sembly do now grant to the said farmers the liberty and privilege 
of a parish and society by and of themselves within the said town of 
Norwich for the settling, upholding and maintaining the public wor- 



ship of God amongst them, with all such liberties, powers and priv- 
ileges as other societies and congregations in this colony generally 
have and do enjoy by law ; always provided that the said farmers bear 
their proportionable charges in the town until they have procured an 
orthodox minister among them." 

Thus was constituted the third ecclesiastical society in Norwich 
called "The North East Society," but no dates, no records earlier than 
the 5th of March, 1734, can be found of it officially, although es- 
tablished in 1 7 18. It may be well to observe here that the early 
custom of our ancestors when they settled the country was to form 
these associations as time advanced and they felt the need of them. 
Thus Parish societies ante-dated the church organizations often 
times — yet were supposed to be harmonious and to be consulted 
whenever any important questions were to be decided, such as the 
settlement of a minister or pastor among them to preach to them ; the 
Parish might not always acquiesce with the choice of the Church 
for a candidate, which awkward situation would show this double- 
headed authority at times to be quite inconvenient. 

Norwich proprietors lost no time in endowing the new Parish 
with lands for its minister's aid. Their appropriations made the first 
month by the records are as follows : "Land belonging to the minis- 
try in the crotch of the river Quena Bauge and Shoutuckett in Nor- 
wich, Item forty-three acres beginning at a stone by a run of water on 
the south side of ye road against John Bacon's house," &c, &c, 
"which further describes as abutting westerly on Comons fifty-eight 
rods, &c, &c. and thence by land of Joseph Read and easterly to road 
or highway to ye first corner. 
Laid out May, 1718. J. C. Huntington, Saml. Lothrop. 

We find also another record of a deed laid out of forty-five 
acres, lying in the place called Wales on the east side of Shoutuckett 
River — with bounds recorded — abutting westerly upon Joseph Roaths 

' Roads?) James Huntington. ) Committee. 

Laid out 1718. Benajah Bushnell, \ 

The above imperfectly represents the very vague descriptions 
of their plots of land, but are noticed here to show the generous and 
fair spirit of the people of Norwich toward her out-lying towns- 
men in the North East Society. 

We see that Wales is one of the old abandoned names once 
known to Lisbon's early locality. On its eastern side Pabaquamsque 
was the name for that part located where Jeremiah Tracy's estate was 
just below Jewett City. — not long since owned by Dr. Rockwell of 
Norwich. Wequonnuc was on the west another name known locally. 
These names, however, were soon lost by those legally established by 
the colonial assembly. 

"lanuarv 17th, 1720. In town meeting ordered that if the Per- 
kinses at their return from Boston do not bring with them a minister 
to preach in the crotch of the river or satisfy the select men, they 



shall have one speedily, the rate-makers shall put them into the 
(Norwich First Society) minister's rates." 

Whether a minister was then brought or not cannot be said. It 
appears that one seasonably came, and that an edifice for worship 
was soon erected. "By over exertion in the effort the energies of the 
people were strained." They sought aid from the Legislature thus : 

"To the Honorable, the Governor, and company of his Majes- 
ty's Colony of Connecticut, in New England, in General Court as- 
sembled at Hartford, May ye ioth 1722 humbly showeth. — That it 
hath pleased Almighty God to settle ye bounds of ye habitations of ye 
inhabitants of ye North East Society in Norwich between two great 
rivers, so that it hath ever been exceeding difficult for us ( when our 
families were but few in number) to attend upon ye public worship 
of God on Sabbath dayes and at other times ; but now our families 
being more numerous we find it is impossible for us and our families 
to attend ye publick worship of God as we should do ; therefore, we 
ye said inhabitants did make our address to this Honorable Assembly 
for to make us a distinct society by ourselves and to give us ye liberty 
for to set up ye publick worship of God amongst them, and it was 
granted, for ye which favor we render this Honorable Assembly 
humble and hearty thanks and we have proceeded in ye premises so 
far yt we have raised and covered a meeting house big enough 
for to hold our inhabitants, and at present we have (with us) a min- 
ister yt preaches ye gospel amongst us to our good satisfaction, and 
we humbly hope we are heartily willing for to expose ourselves and 
our estates for to carry on such a great and good work, and there- 
by to promote ye Glory of God and ye good of souls, but we being 
but few in number and but little and low in estate, and therefore tin- 
capable to carry on so great a work as we ought to do, without ye 
help and assistance of this Honorable Assembly. Therefore we 
think it is our undoubted duty to spread our case before this Honor- 
able Assembly and humbly begg yt favour of this Assembly for to 
give us, ye inhabitants of ye said Society, ye liberty for to improve 
that money yt is, or may be, due from our estate to this colony, for 
three years next ensuing, towards the setting up of ye publick wor- 
ship of God amongst us, and we as in duty bound shall ever pray." 

Joseph Perkins, 
Jabez Perkins, 
Samuel Bishop, 
Committee in behalf of Society. 

The answer obtained was as follows : — 

"Upon the prayer of the North East Society in Norwich, rep- 
resenting their difficulty in respect to settling a minister : This as- 
sembly grants them their parts of the country's rates, or taxes, that 
may be granted for the space of two years to come : and the constable 
of Norwich who collects the country rate there, is hereby ordered to 
collect the same as usual and deliver the same to the committee of 



»3 

said Society, according to their list, for the space of two years as 
aforesaid." 

Thus the colonial Legislature at its session October, 1722, in 
granting the prayer of the petitioners of North East Society in Nor- 
wich for rebate of three years' taxes gave them two years' taxes and 
established a new name for it as follows : 

"Resolved by this Assembly. That for the future the North 
East Society or parish in the town of Norwich be called by the name 
of Newent." 

Before proceeding to the history of Newent, it is quite proper to 
speak of Norwich in its earlier relation to Newent and subsequently 
Lisbon. 

Norwich was founded and settled in 1660. Part of her settlers 
came from Saybrook, Ct, where the Rev. James Fitch has the record 
of having been settled and preached in both Saybrook and Norwich. 
A greater part of the settlers, however, were from Ipswich, Ma-ss., 
and among them we have noticed on the Parish Committee Joseph 
and Jacob Perkins and Samuel Bishop, and later Mathew Perkins 
and other men of Ipswich. As early as 1659 the Indian chief Uncas, 
with his brother Wawequaw. and his two sons, Owaneco and Atta- 
wamhood, united in giving Major Mason (so well known in our 
early history) a deed of sale in the months of June and August of 
that year for a tract of land nine miles square for seventy pounds ; 
a part of this land afterwards became Lisbon. 

The Ipswich settlers, as above stated, had become large land 
proprietors here, and it is supposed that many of them originally 
came from Newent, England — a town 112 miles from London and 
eight miles from Gloucester — to Ipswich, and had then made choice 
of the name Newent for this new North East Society of Norwich. 

This territory has a right to claim and share with Norwich in all 
her historical fame and honors of the past. 

It was but a few years later when Capt. Fitch, another well- 
known early settler, obtained a deed of trust from Lucas's son 
Owaneco giving him absolute possession of the first tract, and of 
other tracts of land. This confusion gave the Norwich proprietors 
very much trouble and anxiety till settled. 

In 1725 the Mohegan title was quitclaimed to Lieut. Samuel 
Bishop and others ; and in 1745 was altogether surrendered bv a deed 
to Capt. Samuel Bishop and others. Much dissatisfaction was felt 
against Capt. Fitch, who was a son of the Pastor, Rev. Mr. Fitch, 
who was fond of conferring spiritual blessings upon the Indians ; 
while the son sought to get temporal advantage from them. As pur- 
chasers from Capt. Fitch there were five prominent men then of Ips- 
wich, Mass., — Samuel Bishop, Mesbach Farley, Mathew Perkins. 
Joseph Safford and Richard Smith. Capt. Fitch made over to them 
the so-called eighteen hundred acre grant. Jacob Perkins and 
Joseph Perkins, also of Ipswich, and brothers of the forementioned 
Mathew Perkins, bought soon after a grant of what the five associ- 
ated had purchased, and also more of the territory adjoining. Rich- 



'4 

ard Adams of either Sudbury or Chlemsford, Mass. (in addition to 
three thousand acres north of this territory, which in 1703 he by 
deeds of gift partitioned to his five sons), obtained soon, perhaps 
before 1700, land within this locality, which land, descending from 
one of his sons through a contiued series of male heirs, his pos- 
terity have retained until to-day. 

Following up this Connecticut Newent. we find that the Rev. 
Levi Nelson says, in his half century sermon; "I have been unable to 
learn when the first meeting house in Newent was erected. It stood 
where Mr. Daniel Hatch's house now is. This was the only place in 
what is now Lisbon (with one exception, which we shall notice here- 
after) where the inhabitants used to attend public worship, till after 
the Hanover Society was organized, which was in the year 1766." 
The exception Mr. Nelson referred to was the meeting house of the 
separatists which stood on the hill west of the present church's local- 
ity as long as needed, when it was taken down and its frame was 
carted to the easterly section of the parish and was made into a barn 
on the Tracy farm. Quoting further from Mr. Nelson's half cen- 
tury sermon, "The whole town of Lisbon was formerly called Newent 
society the third in Norwich. According to the best information I 
have been able to obtain, it received this name from Newent, Glou- 
cester County, England, from the inhabitants of which many of the 
first settlers of this town descended. Though their relations, who re- 
mained in England, might never have seen some of them, it is evident 
they cared for them, for when organized as a church these friends in 
England made them a present of a large folio work of the venerable 
and indefatigable Richard Baxter, containing a very complete set of 
his works." The church made good use of it, as he says an aged 
member once informed him that he had spent many a Sabbath inter- 
mission hearing the book read. 

The site of this first meeting house was about half a mile south 
of the present church edifice, west of where the Providence, Hartford 
and Fishkill Railroad crosses the highway. But little or nothing is 
know of its style or size, but parish records show that it was not des- 
titute of decoration, at least a "cushen" had a place in its pulpit. 

At the Spring session of the colony's Assembly now sitting at 
Hartford May ye 9th, 1723, the petition of the inhabitants of Newent 
in Norwich humbly sheweth : — "That we inhabitants of s'd societv 
have called Mr. Daniel Kirkland to be our minister to carry on the 
worship of God among us, and have peaceably agreed with him 
both for a salary and settlement, therefore your petitioners pray that 
thev may have liberty to ordain the said Mr. Kirkland and to em- 
body a church there, by and with the consent of the neighboring 
churches. And your petitioners shall ever pray. 
Dated Newent. May 7th. 1723. 

Jabez Perkins, 

Joseph Perkins. } Committee. 

Samuel Bishop. 



*5 

At the same session the petition received was answered as fol- 
lows : — "This assembly grant unto the inhabitants of the parish of 
Newent in Norwich liberty to imbody themselves into church estate 
and to settle an orthodox minister amongst them, with the approba- 
tion of the neighboring churches." 

Towards the end of that year there was sent to neighboring 
churches a "call" expressed, subscribed and dated thus, viz. : 

"We the bretheren of the North East Society in Norwich sub- 
scribing hereunto have, after sufficient time of Probation, and with 
mature deliberation, unanimously invited and called Mr. Daniel Kirk- 
land to the work of the ministry among us in this place desiring he 
may have the pastorate charge of us in the Lord. 
Newent in Norwich. November 18, 1723. 

Joseph Perkins, William Read, Jr., 

Jabez Perkins, John Safford, 

John Read, Nathan Bushnell, 

Isaac Lawrence, Samuel Lothrop. 

Isaac Lawrence, Jr.. Timothy Allen, 

Jeremiah Tracy, Daniel Knight, Jr. 

The ministers and churches which assisted in the constitution of 
the church and ordination of the Pastor on the 10th of December, 
1723, were : 

The Rev. Mr. Samuel Whiting 

and the messengers. 
The Rev. Mr. Solomon Treat, of Preston, 

and the messengers. 
The Rev. Mr. Samuel Estabrooks, of Canterbury, 

and the messengers. 
The Rev. Mr. Azariah Mather, of Saybrook, 

and the messengers. 
The Rev. Mr. Benjamin Lord, of Norwich, 

and the messengers. 
The Rev. Mr. Henry Willis, of Norwich, 

and the messengers. 

On the 10th of December. Anno Domini 1723, the church was 
constituted and Daniel Kirkland ordained Pastor, the Rev. Sam- 
uel Whiting gave the charge and the Rev. Mr. Samuel Estabrooks 
the right hand of good fellowship. 

This council called to ordain Rev. Mr. Kirkland was quite a dis- 
tinguished selection of men. important not only as ministers, but as 
well in other spheres of life. Rev. Samuel Whiting was from a Boston 
(England) family and his grandfather had been Mayor of that City. 
Rev. Mr. Treat was a graduate of Harvard College 1694. Mr. Ma- 
ther, a graduate of Yale College 1705 : his kinsman. Cotton Mather, 
is more widely known. Rev. Benjamin Lord was a graduate of Yale 



i6 

College 1714, and had been pastor in Norwich six years (the first 
year of which he had been sole pastor. He lived to see eight pas- 
tors and churches on the same territory and to see it partitioned into 
four towns.) The Rev. Henry Willis, graduated Yale College 17 15, 
and the Rev. Mr. Estabrooks. who was graduated from Harvard 
College 1696. 

In the first year after the birth of the Xewent Church she re- 
ceived into complete fellowship twenty-seven persons ; in the second 
year after, seventeen ; in the four next following years, twenty-one ; 
so that the thirteen original members composed, with the additions, 
;i number in the seventh year scarcely differing by one from its num- 
ber when the church was one hundred and fifty years old. There 
were no other additions recorded until 1 741-2, when were received 
thirty-five, showing a religious revival had been experienced in their 
immediate past. But very soon Newent Church as well as other 
churches in this part of the State were in much trouble and confu- 
sion in consequence of prevailing ideas which were supposed to be 
too restrictive wherein the general custom had been to ostracize or 
keep men out of office who were not closely connected in church 
membership, etc. Then there had in this vicinity sprung up a very 
general following of a sect called Separatist, who were active, almost 
aggressive, who seemed to make great inroads upon these earlier 
established churches, and for a while gave no little trouble and anx- 
iety to these orthodox existing societies. However, they had their 
day, and not long afterwards they seemed to have died out and lost 
their vital interest. The first of their churches was formed in Can- 
terbury, 1744. Not long after a Separatist Church was formed in 
Newent. made up of disaffected, but undismissed members of the 
Newent Church. Owing to the distraction the Newent Church rec- 
ords are entirely a blank in respect to that period, 1744 to 1755. Some 
few records were afterwards added, but nothing like a full report. 
The reasons alleged for leaving the regular church were : — want of 
edification from the church's minister ; church's lacking gospel order, 
as having no ordained ruling elder, and no ordained deacons ; owned 
Christ in words, but in deeds denied Him, etc., etc. The Separat- 
ists generally encouraged lay-preaching more than most Congrega- 
tionalists were wont to do. By credible information we find a record 
that one "Jeremiah Tracy, Jr., has taken upon him to be a preacher, 
a calling which we don't apprehend God has called him to." 

So far as known the Separatist Church in Newent had none 
other than lay-preachers till Mr. Bliss Willoughby was ordained its 
pastor in 1753. Its meeting house, as has been described, stood upon 
the hill-crest directly north of where the late Sanford Bromley's 
dwelling house stood, and was later torn down. The Separatists tol- 
erated some serious errors. Their practice was not wholly the 
"Meekness of wisdom." However, they opposed the unrighteous 
management of the civil power in forcing men by taxes, and severer 
means to uphold church ministrations, and in many other ways 
they wrought some good, but also excited sensitive men who were 



i7 

highly organized into a mental and physical strain liable to break 
them down. The first pastor of the Newent Church was sensitively or- 
ganized, previously showing with cither citizens the trouble wrought 
everywhere by a currency lessening in value, and worn down by 
labor for nearly thirty vears, and harassed by the dissensions here, 
the last of these strains nearly prostrated him. A biographical work 
affirms that "after thirty years he became deranged." The eccle- 
siastical council, however, which in compliance with his own request 
convened here with reference to dismissing him. did not regard him 
as deranged. The question was formally put to them as one having 
legal bearings, whether Mr. Kirkland was sane, and having been an- 
swered affirmatively by the council, it ought to settle that matter. 

Air. Kirkland's pastoral connection in Newent was dissolved 
on the 4th of January. 1753. He was afterwards a pastor in Gro- 
ton from 1755-8. After his release there he came back to Newent 
and here on the 17th of May, 1773, he died; his ministry covering 
nearly fifty years. He had six daughters and five sons. 

Between April, 1753. and September. 1756. the Newent Society, 
after they had been temporarily supplied by the preaching of Henry 
Willes, from the West Farms pastorate, voted that six other can- 
didates should be invited to preach to them as candidates for settle- 
ment, or as one of the votes expressed it, "to preach to us as a min- 
ister of the gospel upon trial." Those persons as specified were Mr. 
Packer (Elijah Packard), Mr. John Curtiss, Rev. (Ebenezer?) 
Mills, "the worthy Mr. Benjamin Chapman," "the worthy Mr. Noah 
Wadham," and "the worthy Mr. Peter Powers." The last named 
received (hie invitation from the Church and from the Society and 
accepted the charge. 

Ordination of Rev. Peter Powers, who graduated at Harvard 
College, 1754. Had as classmate John Hancock of Boston, L.L.D. 
Seven churches, including the one at Mr. Powers' home. Hollis, N. 
H., and one at Mrs. Powers' former residing place, Sutton. Mass., 
met the 2d of December. 1756. by due summons and its record of 
action is thus, viz. : The council being opened by prayer, then pro- 
ceeded to the examination of the s'd Mr. Powers respecting his min- 
isterial qualifications ; who approved himself to the satisfaction of the 
council ; and at the same time there was a confession of faith ex- 
hibited (agreeable to the confession of the faith of the churches) and 
also a church covenant, mutually signed by Mr. Powers and the 
bretheren of the church. Thus the ordination was accordingly per- 
formed on s'd day — December 2, 1756. 

(Signed) Benjamin Lord, Moderator. 

Mr. Powers' ministry in Newent commenced with certain favor- 
able indications. The Parish now included no Indian clans, the heirs 
of poor Knight Owanoco — Uncas' Son — having, after his own ex- 
ample, fallen into a low condition, had in 1745 sold the Indian reser- 
vation to Newent citizens. The dwindled number of Indians re- 
maining within the parish had quit the aboriginal way of living ; 



many of them were rural laborers, domestic servants, some becom- 
ing church members, and reputed as Christians. A quit-claim given 
to Newent, 1752, of, as the words are, the "land where their meet- 
ing-house now stands" had freed the parish of its liability to lose 
by proscription what before it doubtfully held by prescription. 
Turbulence in the community was subsiding. On the other hand, 
Mr. Powers' ministry here was from first to last attended by 
many unfavorable things. The material and the moral resources 
of all the Xew England colonies were largely drawn upon by 
the mother country's military operations, directed against the 
French, the events of which made Canada an English colony. Con- 
necticut in particular did its full share of the hard work and bore 
its full share of the heavy burdens involved. As elsewhere in Con- 
necticut, so in Newent. Worshippers were taxed by Newent parish 
and in default of payment otherwise were made to undergo distrain- 
ing pressure. The Pastor and others like-minded could not make 
their aversion to this odious established infringement on personal 
preferences, and conscientious convictions, effectual, towards the 
adoption of a different practice. 

When Rev. Mr. Kirkland's pastoral relation to Newent ceased 
there were twenty-nine male members of the church. The number 
of male members who, at the time of Air. Powers' ordination, sub- 
scribed to the church's covenant was twenty. During his ministry 
the church received into its membership seventy-four persons — males 
twenty-five, females forty-nine. The working power of the church 
was later diminished by the formation in 1761 of a new parish 
called Hanover, the seventh in Norwich, to which parish the incor- 
porating act assigned nearly half of Newent's territory and some- 
what of territories from Canterbury and Scotland parishes. Par- 
ticulars of the matter are found in the Newent's Society's records, 
and in the ancient documents preserved in the State's library. 
There also was, as the same authorities show, another matter agitated 
through the latter half of Mr. Powers' pastorate here ; the question 
whether or not a new house for worship should be built in Newent. 
and the more distracting inquiry "where shall a new house for that 
purpose be set?" These questions were followed by discussions, 
proposals and counter-proposals, petitions and counter-petitions, 
with application to the County Court and to the Colonial General 
Assembly, all, as to result, in vain. The Society waxed not, mean- 
while the Church waned. The Pastor, a man as brave as he was 
tender hearted, and as wise as he was faithful, was impoverished. 
It was appointed him, though at this time he did not know it, to 
reap a rich spiritual harvest, where before him no spiritual reaper, 
and no spiritual sower had been. 

Mr. Powers' dismissal from Newent occurred June 20, 1764. 
He went from Newent to Haverhill, N. H., afterwards he was set- 
tled as a Pastor in Maine, where he died. About this time broad- 
spread and well-founded discontent with England's misrule of her 
American colonies was manifest. The patriot was watching with 



19 

fear the gathering clouds of the great political tempest, which was 
soon to burst forth, menacing ruin to Liberty, dear to him as his 
life. It was the era marked by the Stamp Act, 1764. 

In the year 1766 the eighth church in Norwich, called Hanover, 
was founded. The Separatists and church had become as sheep 
without a shepherd, Mr. Willoughby, after supervising them for two 
or three years, and after visiting England as an agent of Sepa- 
ratists generally, had re-crossed the ocean and having gone to 
another denomination, preached at Bennington, Vt. The Separatist 
house of worship was for sale in 1768 and probably the Newent 
Separatist church about that date was disbanded. There is a proba- 
bility that a few became Baptists ; a few others of them may have 
joined the Eighth Society in Norwhich at Portipaug, a section of 
West Farms. A considerable number of Newent people, once mem- 
bers of the disbanded church, also some Hanover people, who had 
been members of the Brunswick church, were afterwards received 
into the Newent church. During the changes which marked these 
years there came more of quiet to the Newent society. Discordance 
in opinions was lessening and harmony of feeling was increasing 
through the community. 

A meeting of the Newent society was held January 12, 1769, 
wherein a vote was taken and sixteen of the prominent citizens of 
Newent openly subscribed their names and their pledges to pay for 
the current year, all taxes of the Separatists which might be as- 
sessed upon them ; providing, such persons appear to be sober and 
conscientious persons. 

Thirteen months later, in February, 1770, we find as follows: 
"At a meeting of the inhabitants of ye Society of Newent, in ye 
town of Norwich, legally warned and held in said Newent, ye fifth 
day of February, 1770, Capt. Jeremiah Kinsman, Moderator, voted 
to proceed to build a new meeting house at the stake or place affixed 
by the County Court for that purpose, and the money to be raised 
by way of subscription, as has been proposed to pay ye cost of 
building said house ; and we do agree to proceed forthwith to pro- 
vide oak, and pine boards and other stuff necessary for the work ; 
and next winter to get the frame and then proceed as fast as we 
can with convenience to finish s'd house." 

At the same meeting these gentlemen were appointed a com- 
mittee "to survey the Society's land called the meeting house lot, 
where ye old meeting house now stands, with full power and author- 
ity to make sale of ye same to ye best advantage . . . and ye 
money to be improved for the purpose of building a new meeting 
house in this Society." "On ye 27th day of November, 1770, the 
Society unanimously concurred in the call which the church, 20th 
October, 1770, had given ye worthy Mr. Joel Benedict to become its 
pastor." Measures including a proposition to provide land "for a 
parsonage" were soon after adopted. The frame of the new house 
of worship was set up on its new glebe by two days' labor, Tuesday 
and Wednesday, 2Qth and 30th May, 1771. 



Xotes of hand were given 19th March, 1772, the largest by Dr. 
Joseph Perkins "for finishing ye meeting house." Mr. Kirkland, 
the first pastor of the church had died the week next preceding the 
one in which this second church building near to his dwelling house 
was raised. The site of the new building is the same which is now 
the site of the Xewent church. The architect and builder of the 
edifice ( Xo. 2 ) was Captain Ebenezer Tracy of Xewent. 



SETTLEMEXT OF MR. JOEL BENEDICT 

AS THIRD PASTOR OF NEWENT CHURCH. 

Letters having been sent for the purpose to seven churches in 
Xew London and Windham Counties an ecclesiastical council was 
convened and Mr. Benedict, after reception as a member of the 
church, was ordained 21st of February, 1771. In the sermon 
preached by Mr. Hart he says, addressing the church : "Happy after 
all your divisions and trials to see this day ! Thrice happy if you 
continue steadfast to the end. Take heed therefore that ye fall not 
out by the way. Love one another, love your pastor, but love Christ 
above all. Esteem your minister highly for his work's sake, assist 
him with your prayers, receive the counsel of God from his mouth, 
practice it in your lives, and follow him in all things wherein he fol- 
loweth Christ." Mr. Benedict (Gr. C. X. J., 1765) always holding 
amicable relations with his flock, spent a few years here with success. 
In his letter, which conveyed to the church his acceptance of their 
call to its pastorate, was expressed his apprehensions that "A num- 
ber should fall away from their engagements," so that as he ex- 
pressed it "you should think it too great a burthen to raise the stip- 
ulated support." What he then mentioned and suspected occurred. 
The last years of his ministry in Newent were those in which his 
congregation, in common with all American citizens, felt most se- 
verely the pressure brought on them by the revolutionary war. The 
records of the church for those years, 1779-82, show that "thro" the 
difficulties of the present time, by reason of the heavy taxes for 
support of the war, there was so great a failure in the Society in 
furnishing the pastor with sufficient maintenance that he had of 
necessity sold his dwelling-house and was obliged to part with land 
and was driven to secular business for his support. The church 
having a desire to continue the connection "were not able to make up 
the deficiencies of the people," and although the Society on the day 
when a council was in session and considering whether or not he 
should remain pastor here declared itself "willing to endeavor" to 
raise by subscription means of providing "a parsonage lot and a 
house for Mr. Benedict" the council averse to the Society's ex- 
pressed "desire" for his continuance in Xewent, yet consented to his 
dismissal on the 30th of April, 1782. The children of Dr. Benedict 
and Sarah McKown were four sons and seven daughters. 



From 1784 Dr. Benedict was Pastor of the church in Plainfield, 
where, as its pastor, he died in 1816. 

For a period extending from 30th October 3 1782, to 31st Octo- 
ber, 1788, the Society records contain no entries whatever and the 
church records as to that period and a year or two next after are 
almost as void. 

It is, however, unquestionable that Xewent received its propor- 
tion of the secular prosperity which the whole nation obtained after 
the close of the contest by which its independence was established. 
And an era of good was at hand when, having for seventy years had 
so much disquiet, Xewent with Hanover became, in 1786, Lisbon. 
Two years before this Xewent parish, August 25th, 1784, appointed 
Captain Jabez Perkins. Captain Elisha Morgan, and Captain Ezra 
Bishop as a committee to forward a subscription for the purpose of 
creating a permanent fund in aid of the parish of the Society of 
Xewent in the town of Norwich. This committee prepared an in- 
strument which recited that "in the present circumstances of said So- 
ciety, no method can be devised so likely to lay a sure and lasting 
foundation for supplying and supporting a minister in said society 
as that of raising a bank or fund so large as that the annual interest 
thereof shall be sufficient to pay the yearly salary that shall be here- 
after agreed upon." This instrument was subscribed to by sixty 
persons, the sums severally subscribed ranged from £2 the minimum 
to £70 the maximum, including one of that amount, with three of 
£60. The total amount in 1873 of this fund was Ten Thousand 
Dollars. 

The Society's pecuniary account with the Rev. Joel Benedict 
was not settled till 8th of June, 1792, when by paying £31 to him and 
getting a discharge in full from him the settlement was accom- 
plished. 

SETTLEMEXT OF REV. DAVID HALE. 
June 2, 1790. 

Rev. David Hale was settled as the fourth pastor of Xewent 
church, which had now become the first church of Lisbon. When 
his predecessor. Rev. Joel Benedict, was settled in 1771 as the third 
pastor of this church, the church was still in Xorwich. 

This first church of Christ in Lisbon on the 21st of December. 
[789, called Rev. David Hale to the work of the ministry among 
them. Mr. Hale having, by a letter dated May 11. 1790, accepted 
the call, an ecclesiastical council was summoned to meet 2d June. 
1790. and he was inducted into that work by installation. 

As Mr. Hale had from early infancy been reared under the 
ministry of the Rev. Dr. Joseph Huntington, of Coventry, it is not 
remarkable that Dr. Huntington, being presiding officer of that 
council, both preached the sermon and gave the charge to the 
pastor on that occasion. It may, however, be worthy of remark 



that after the council had "Proceeded to examine s'd pastor elect 
respecting the principles of his faith" which doubtless he set forth 
distinctly and fully, "the council voted satisfied" ; Mr. Hale, as the 
minutes of the Council relates, signified his approbation of the prin- 
ciples of the congregational churches. That approbation is notice- 
able, because at that time efforts were for a second time made, es- 
pecially in Connecticut, to make little of congregational principles, 
and the foremost congregational minister in this State accustomed 
himself to join with others in styling the congregational churches 
Presbyterians. It is noticeable because Mr. Hale had, in an adjacent 
State out of New England, been ordained by Presbyterian ministers, 
he having settled in Suffolk County on Long Island previously and 
brought testimonials from Presbyterians there to this church in 
Newent. This Rev. David Hale was a distinguished member of a 
very distinguished family and deserves a more extended notice on 
that account. He was born in Coventry, 14th December, 1761, grad- 
uate Yale College 1785, died in his native town 10th February. 1822. 
He was a son of Richard Hale. Among his earlier ancestors was a 
Robert and a John. John Hale had a son, Samuel Hale, who resided 
in Newburyport, Mass., whose oldest son was Richard Hale. He 
removed to Coventry, Conn., married Elizabeth Strong of that place 
and there died 1802, aged eighty-five years. He and his wife Eliza- 
beth had twelve children, of which the third, Joseph Hale, an officer 
of the Revolutionary army, was father of Mary, the second wife of 
Rev. Levi Nelson, who spent the whole of her married life in Lisbon. 
She died May 2d, 1851, aged sixty-eight years. Her father's 
brother, Enoch, was the third son of Richard, graduate Yale Col- 
lege 1773; was first pastor of the church in Westhampton, Mass., 
and a member of the convention for the amending the constitution 
of Massachusetts, and he was father of Nathan Hale, LL.D., who was 
graduated W. C. 1804, once editor of the Boston Advertiser, and one 
of whose sons is the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, graduate H. C. 1839, 
a pastor and editor in Boston, and a well-known author. Still a sixth 
son of this Richard Hale and Elizabeth Strong was Nathan, a grad- 
uate Y. C. 1773, a teacher and a captain in the American War for 
Independence, whose amiable and heroic spirit, graced with Christian 
devotion, shone so lustrously when with needless cruelty he was, In- 
British military orders, executed 1776 as a spy. His last words 
were "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." 

It was this ninth son of Richard, David, brother of the patriotic 
martyr, that became the fourth pastor of the Newent church. He 
had, in connection with other preparation, probably studied for the 
ministry with the Rev. Dr. Wales, Professor of Theology in Yale 
College. He was approved by the New Haven Association 1787. 

David Hale was dismissed at his request on the 27th of April, 
1803. His virtues are recorded as very many in loveliness. While 
his pastorate in Lisbon continued he conducted a boarding school in 
his own home with much success as long as his health proved suffi- 
cient. 



2 3 

His pastorate was given up only after his health failed, from 
physical inability. He continued to live in Lisbon and owned a 
house which he built 1795 and which afterwards was sold to the 
Society for a parsonage. The price paid was $i,ioo; it is still 
the parsonage. Rev. Mr. Hale, after his release from school and 
church, became a magistrate and a representative of the town 
of Lisbon. In 1806 he removed again to his native town Coventry, 
and was there made Deacon in the first church and a justice of 
the Court of Common Pleas. 

Judge Hale, on the 19th of May, 1790, married Lydia Austin, of 
Xew Haven, a daughter of Samuel Austin, and the only child of this 
marriage was named David. This David Hale, son of the Rev. 
David Hale, was born in Lisbon, 25th April, 1791, and died at Fred- 
ericksburg, Ya., 20th of January, 1849. He received his education 
at his father's boarding school and otherwise he was trained to mer- 
cantile business, first in Coventry and subsequently in Boston, in 
which latter place he became first a merchant and later a manufac- 
turer. In these pursuits he had limited success; from 1827 till his 
decease he was with Gerald Hallock as editor and founder of the 
Journal of Commerce, a daily newspaper in New York. He wielded 
a ready pen, was equal to the emergencies as they arose, etc. The 
record here speaks much about his benevolence in giving and doing 
much good for Christian work. He published a tract written by 
his pastor. Rev. Joseph P. Thompson, D.D., LL.D., entitled "Mem- 
oirs of David Hale." This David Hale, who was born in Lisbon, 
married on the 18th of January, 181 5, his cousin Laura, born 30th of 
August, 1789; she died 25th of July, 1824. She was a daughter of 
Richard and Mary ( Wright) Hale, of Coventry. He married again 
on the 22d of August, 1825, Lucy S. Turner, from Boston. He had 
by the former wife two daughters and two sons and by the latter 
four daughters. His second daughter Lydia was born 27th of May, 
1818; died 18th of October, 1846. She had married, April 23, 1838, 
T. T. Devan, M.D., a missionary to China, in which country she died. 
Her older sister, Mary Hale, born March 11, 1816; married May 
2 7- l &39< N. Stickney, of Rockville, Conn. Richard Hale, the 
oldest son, born May 24, 1820; married October 28, 1844, Miss 
Julia Xewlin. 

David Austin Hale, next son, born September 3, 1822: mar- 
ried September 3, 1849, Miss M. I. Simonds, of Athol, Mass. Lucy 
Turner Hale, first daughter by second wife, born July 9, 1826; mar- 
ried. May 20. 1846, Stephen Connover, Jr., of Xew York. 

Laura Hale born August 22. 1828, married December 21, 1848, 
J. W. Camp, of Xew York. 

Charlotte Hale, born April 6, 1832, married Mr. Charles B. 
Richardson. He is dead; she resides at Wellesley, Mass. The 
youngest daughter, Martha Lonisa Hale, born August 5, 1834; died 
January 8, 1836. 

The Lisbon first church (Xewent) was gradually reinforced 
so long as the pastor continued able for ministerial work. 



24 



The church next invited Mr. David B. Ripley to become its pas- 
tor 9th of December, 1803. The Society on the same day non-con- 
curred. 



REV. LEVI NELSON'S SETTLEMENT. 

The church, September 13, 1804, unanimously gave, and the 
Society two weeks subsequently concurred in giving, Mr. Levi Nel- 
son an invitation to be their pastor and minister. Mr. Nelson ac- 
cepted the invitation. An ecclesiastical council was convened and 
were satisfied and voted unanimously to comply with the desire of 
the church and Society. He was thereupon regularly ordained pas- 
tor of the first church in Lisbon, December 5, 1804. Mr. Nelson 
had recently been engaged in missionary service under direction of 
the Missionary Society of Massachusetts, of which State he was a 
native. The letters missive from the Lisbon church requested the 
assistance of two churches in that State at his ordination. The pas- 
tor and two delegates of one of those was present, together with 
pastors and delegates from seven churches in parishes in the vicinity 
of Lisbon. It would seem that the transactions of that ordination 
day were unusually impressive to all who, as actors or otherwise. 
were concerned in them. While the members of the council were 
passing to places reserved for them in the congregation assembled 
the choir's jubilant voices uttered in choral strain this assurance: 

"The hill of Zion yields 

A thousand sacred sweets 
Before we reach the heavenly fields 
Or walk the golden streets." 

( The same hymn was sung again at the fiftieth anniversary of 
Mr. Nelson's settlement.) The introductory ordination prayer was 
by Dr. Samuel Nott, of Franklin, who, as his historian says, at eight 
years of age a blacksmith's apprentice, at twelve an assistant in his 
father's business of tanning and shoe-making, and at nineteen a 
mason, had then been twenty-two years a pastor of the church in 
Franklin. Once he barely escaped alive from fire when six years 
old. His remarkable career is well known to all the older people of 
that vicinity. The writer very well remembers his impressive ap- 
pearance, dressed in knee breeches, long black stockings, large silver 
shoe buckles, when in his presence to be examined for fitness to teach 
a district school ; or when he came to visit the same school, and was 
as punctual as his large silver bull's-eye watch would permit, to gov- 
ern the official examination. He lived to almost one hundred and 
his pastorate exceeded seventy years. At Mr. Nelson's ordination 
the sermon was preached by the Rev. David Long, who, little older 
than the pastor-elect, had then been for three years a pastor at Mil- 
ford, Mass. The consecrating prayer was offered by the Rev. Joel 
Benedict, who had been a former pastor of this church and at this 



25 

time had been pastor for twenty years at Plainfield, where he died 
after a long service in the ministry. 

The laying-on of hands upon the head of the candidate was by 
Dr. Benedict, and Dr. Joseph Strong, who had then been pastor for 
twenty-six years of the first church in Norwich, where his life ter- 
minated with a pastorate of fifty-six years. 

The Moderator of the Council, Dr. Levi Hart, of Preston, now 
Griswold, had been settled there then forty-two years. His life 
closed there with a record of almost forty-six years. 

The Scribe of the Council, Dr. Andrew Lee, had then been 
pastor of the Hanover church thirty-five years. His death occurred 
there after sixty-four years' pastorate over the second church in 
Lisbon ( Hanover ) , now Sprague. 

Dr. Hart, a son-in-law of the eminent Dr. Bellamy, gave the 
charge to Mr. Nelson. 

The right hand of fellowship was by Dr. Lee. The concluding 
prayer was by Dr. Strong, of Norwich, who, with Dr. Lord, had led 
such a long and useful life in that vicinity. It is marvelous to see 
how many of the clergymen settled in this immediate neighborhood 
were blessed with such long lives among their people. Half century 
celebrations were very common in those early days — many times 
the ministers preaching to an audience who were wholly unknown to 
them at the commencement of their careers. 

Mr. Nelson's pastorate has been compared in review to a placid 
stream flowing smoothly for the most part. But later on the em- 
bargo act and the non-intercourse acts, followed soon by war with 
England, brought more or less suffering to all classes of rhe Ameri- 
can people. The cost of living was greatly increased, and Mr. Nel- 
son became much embarrassed, and it looked to the people of his 
church as if he might have to sever his relations, as it was impos- 
sible to live on his small salary unless supplemented. Consequently 
the Society took action in 1812, May 26th, to guard against losing 
their pastor. A bank of Eleven Hundred Dollars was made up for 
the express purpose of purchasing a parsonage for the use and sup- 
port of gospel ministers. To that agreement were signed sixty-one 
names of persons who severally gave sums varying from $2 to $50. 
( >ne gave $66, two gave $60, etc., etc. So in 1812, October 16th, a 
committee was chosen and directed to purchase Rev. Mr. Nelson's 
farm and buildings to be kept by the Society for a parsonage. This 
contemplated design was carried out ; Mr. Nelson continued to oc- 
cupy the premises, and succeeding ministers have lived there np to 
the present time. The house was one built by the Rev. David Hale 
in I7<;5. and still is the church parsonage. There was special in- 
terest in religion in 1810 and more converts made to the church than 
usual up to 1820. In 1829 to 1831 many were hopefully converted. 
In 1843 occurred a gracious work, resulting as was estimated in near- 
ly one hundred conversions. The church so increased by additions 
embraced one hundred and fifty persons, a larger number than they 
had ever had before. Savs Mr. Nelson in his half-century sermon. 



26 



speaking of those great in-gatherings to the church, "Oh! it seems 
to me that, if angels have any specially favorite seasons and places 
on earth, they are when and where such scenes are transacted." In 
that discourse he also said : "The church grew not only in numbers, 
but in influence, which is not always seen in proportion to the addi- 
tion of members." 

He further says: "My observations have been that revivals with 
the least excitement are the most strengthening- to churches. . . . 
It is much better to trust in the Lord and wait upon Him than to de- 
pend upon signs either for or against revivals. Solomon's direction 




THE PARSONAGK. 



is always applicable to this subject, 'In the morning sow thy seed and 
in the evening withhold not thine hand ; for thou knowest not 
whether shall prosper this, or that, or whether they shall be both 
alike good.' ' In common with other ministers and with his own 
parishioners he bore affliction and gave, as well as found, precious 
sympathy. 

Xear the beginning of his pastoral connection Mr. Xelson lost 
his wife and companion, to whom he was married about a year after 
his ordination. This first wife was Miss Abigail Tyler, of Mendon, 
Mass., born 1781, died December 20, 1806, aged twenty-five years. 
They were married in 1805. She joined the Newent church October 



27 

6th, 1805. She left a child horn on the 29th of September, 1806, 
named Anna Tyler, who grew up to womanhood and married, the 
29th of January, 1826, David S. Nelson, of Gloucester, Me., where 
she died in June 1826. Both the mother and the daughter had but 
short careers after they were married. 

Mr. Nelson married the second time Mary Hale, August 31, 
1809, then of Franklin, Conn. She was born 23d November, 1782; 
died May 2, 1851. She was a relative or niece of Rev. David 
Hale, who had been the fourth pastor at Xewent. She was the third 
daughter of Joseph Hale, an officer in the American Revolutionary 
War, and of his wife Rebecca, a daughter of Judge Joseph Harris, 
of New London, Conn. 

Mr. Nelson's first wife had with other qualities of excellency 
much amiability of character ; the second wife was very intelligent, 
judicious and refined, most kind and popular with all with whom 
she came in contact. 

Rev. Levi Nelson was born in Milford, Mass., the 8th of Au- 
gust, 1779. He died in Lisbon 18th December, 1855. universally 
lamented by the church of whom he was pastor, as well as all who 
knew him and his great worth. 

The Lisbon first church experienced a great loss not only in 
their pastor's death ; but within a few weeks prior they had lost two 
principal officers of the church in the deaths of Deacon Tracv and 
Deacon Reuben Bishop. 

Levi Nelson was the youngest of the eleven children of Mr. 
Seth and Mrs. Silence ( Cheney) Xelson. Seth, a brother of Levi, 
was the father of Rev. Henry Xelson, formerly of Albany, X. Y. 
Another nephew of Levi Xelson was Rev. John Nelson, D.D., grad- 
uate W. C. 1807, a trustee of W. C. 1826-33; ordained pastor at 
Leicester, Mass., 1812, and continued in that pastoral relation till his 
death, 1872. 

Mr. Levi Xelson, owing to a failure of his health when pursuing 
his college education, did not attain to graduation. But Williams 
College, where he had been enrolled, gave him in 18 10 the honorary 
degree of A.M. He had obtained theological instruction from Rev. 
Xathaniel Emmons, D.D., of Franklin, Mass., and received a com- 
mission from a Massachusetts society to take up missionary work, 
which he did in Xew York for a part of the year 1803. Farly in 
1804 his labors in Lisbon commenced. They were dissolved bv his 
death, as has been stated, 18th December, 1855. At his funeral a 
sermon was preached by Rev. Roswell Whitmore, of Dawdle, and 
an address was made by Rev. John P. Gulliver, D.D., of Norwich. 
Both the sermon and the address were requested for publication, 
but were never published. Those persons who knew Mr. Xelson 
as their pastor will ever retain a high respect and regard for his 
habitual kindness and love and counsel to them, which will ever be 
held in high esteem as long as life and memory last. A memorial 
gift of a pulpit has been recently presented to Lisbon church in honor 
of Rev. Levi and Marv Xelson. 



28 





KEV. LEVI AND MARY NELSON. 

A summary review of these five pastors in the Newent church, 
covering a little over one hundred years, appears as follows : 

Rev. Mr. Kirkland from 1723 to 1753 

Rev. Mr. Peter Powers 1756 " 1770 

Rev. Mr. Joel Benedict " 1770 " 1782 

Rev. Mr. David Hale " 1789 " 1803 

Rev. Mr. Levi Nelson " 1804 " 1855 

Of the four pastors that preceded Mr. Nelson in Newent, the 
historian of Norwich testifies, they were all men of more than com- 
mon attainments and each was distinguished by peculiar and prom- 
inent traits. A general statement might, with probable accuracy, 
present them briefly, thus : — Kirkland, ardent, earnest, sensitive, sin- 
cere : — Powers, with plainness of speech, shrewd, and strenuous, 
with robust energy : — Benedict, accurate, firm, substantial, well 
poised, well controlled, and controlling those about him : — Hale, with 
executive ability, planning well, scholarly and tasteful, followed 
by Nelson, affectionate, pure-minded, less showy than solid, but 
tenacious : — then Lee, of the Hanover church, Lisbon, had his strong 
influence, who was bold in thinking, lenient towards others in opin- 
ion, resolute and vigorous in deeds, and with these six strong men 
add Dr. Perkins (the elder), Lisbon's physician, a Deacon of the 
Newent church nearly forty years, who was enterprising, decisive, 
practical, and wise. Of these seven persons six were in the Newent 
church. The first was in public life here thirty years, the three 
next following respectively fourteen, twelve, and fourteen years, and 
the fifth, fifty-one vears ; the sixth, sixtv-four years, and the seventh. 



20 



sixty-five or sixty-six years, and all before entering office had been 
trained at the ablest of the New England educational institutions, 
and were a great power in this community. 

In the year next after Mr. Nelson's death, the Rev. Mr. David 
Breed supplied for a while, and near the close of 1856 he was invited 
and was installed the sixth pastor of the church, 17th February, 
1857. Rev. Dr. Samuel Wolcott, father of ex-U. S. senator of Col- 
orado, and pastor of the High Street Church in Providence, R. I., 
preached the sermon on that occasion. Mr. Breed, in compliance 
with his request, was regularly dismissed from his pastorate in 
Lisbon November 30th, 1861. Subsequently Rev. Lewis Jessop 
ministered from 1862 to 1866. 

Rev. Simon Waters from 1866-1867. His death closed his con- 
nection here in 1867. 

Rev. John Haskell from 1867 to 1871. 

Rev. Richard Manning Chipman from July, 1871, to March 
31st, 1879. 

Rev. Tosiah Green Willis, 1880 to November nth, [882. 

Rev. John B. Griswold, 1882 to April 1st, 1886. 

Rev. Quincy M. Bosworth, July, 1886, to July 1898. 

Edwin Bradford Robinson, November 1st, 1898, to March, 



1901. 



22 y 



Rev. 

Rev. 
1902. 



Tyler Eddy Gale has been engaged to supply since May 








SCHOOLHOUSK OF DISTRICT NO. I, ON THE CHURCH GREEN. 



3° 




THE CHURCH IN SUMMER. 

One devoted family to the Newent Lisbon Church deserves a passing 
notice for their loyalty to its prosperity and maintenance, having been church- 
goers here for three or four generations. The Baldwins, although non- 
residents of Lisbon, living just over its border line in South Canterbury, 
have had some connection with the Newent Church ever since the Rev. 
Peter Powers on February 10, 1761, married their grandmother to her first hus- 
band, Reuben Bishop. Mrs. Bishop married a second time Capt. Benjamin 
Burnham, and their daughter, Hannah Burnham, married Dr. Elijah Bald- 
win, Sr. This family has had among its members a practicing physician 
for nearly a hundred years. Miss Helen Baldwin, M.D., now practicing in 
New York City, is a great-grandchild of above Mrs. Burnham, and is held in 
high esteem by her professional brethren. 



While no village or dwellings surrounded the Newent church, 
she has had immediately opposite her frontage a pleasant old home- 
stead, which for a long period has extended a welcome to her wor- 
shippers, where at the intermission between services on Sundays the 
ladies were inclined to drop in and speak of town topics. 

Directly between this residence, owned by the late Tyler Brown, 
and the church can be seen the stone whipping-post, which serves 
more in these latter days to post town notices and society meetings 
than for holding criminals for punishment. Mr. Tyler Brown 
formerly kept a store, which later on was used as a conference 
house, and which now is Lisbon's Town House. This Mr. 
Brown was the father of George M. Brown, a prominent lawyer 



3 1 



and well-known citizen of Boston, who spent about fifty years of his 
life there and was highly esteemed by those who knew him. His 
brother, the late Daniel M. Brown, was a life-long farmer in Lisbon, 
living- at their old homestead, and be has left an only son, a physician 
n< >w practising his profession successfully at Norwich. The mother, 
Mrs. Daniel M. Brown, dwelling at this old home, which has stood 
Si intimately connected with Lisbon's center so many generations, 
still has a friendly interest in town affairs and in the church's 
welfare. 



REMINISCENCE. 

A little reminiscence connected with the writer's life he is 
templed to give, showing that eighty years ago this present summer 
the schools of Lisbon were not wholly destitute of athletic contests 
to develop physical culture among her children. 

In 1823 the brick schoolhouse of the second district was being 
built by Air. Elijah Rathbun, Sr., and it was completed that fall, 
when my father, Reuben Bishop, taught the first winter's school 
in that edifice in 1823 and 1824. While this brick schoolhouse was 
being erected and no suitable room to be bad for a summer school, 
I was sent a mile and a half from home to the central district. This 
was no joke for a three-year-old kid, even if he was big enough to 
go barefooted. My recollection is very vivid of things that took 
place that summer in an athletic strife in which I endeavored to 
show the late Daniel M. Brown that I was the best man in physical 
culture, and got flogged. B didn't trouble me that he was a year 
older than myself, but I thought he took advantage of my long 
walk, and, being tired, in accepting the challenge. The teacher, Miss 
Lucy Stevens, tried to comfort and console me by telling me "Daniel 
was a bad boy, and I bad better not play or fight with him any more." 
There was no further strife for the championship that summer. I 
followed the instruction of the schoolma'am and held athletic sports 
at a discount while I attended her school. 



The first church was built as described and in the locality named 
while the Rev. Mr. Kirkland was pastor, about 1723. B was used a 
little less than fifty years. The second church was built under the 
supervision of Mr. Ebenezer Tracy, architect and builder, while the 
Rev. Joel Benedict was the pastor. It served almost ninety years, 
when it was taken down, much to the disappointment of manv per- 
sons who had a great reverence for its sacred walls. Bs high tower 
and bell, its pews and high pulpit, its sounding board, its broad aisle 
and deacon's seat, were all impressive and much revered. Had the 
old church been preserved Lisbon would now have had one of the 
most interesting; churches in the State. When first built it had no 



3 2 

steeple or tower, neither a bell to call its worshippers to service. It 
might have been the custom here, as in many other places at that 
early period, to assemble at the call of a drum, or a bugle, or horn 
blowing. First it was furnished only with benches, which after- 
wards were replaced with square pews. Large enclosures made of 
high wainscoted walls, against the sides of which seats were ranged 
and within which were frequently two or three chairs. At the base 
of the pulpit was a narrow pew called the deacon's seat. The pulpit 
of the oldest church of Newent had a cushion which when the second 
church was built temporarily was used to indicate their respect for 
it. For the last fifty years of this second church's use it had been 
made more comely by the building of a tower and steeple and by 
hanging a suitable bell which was given to the Society by Captain 
Andrew Clark. The sounding board above the pulpit always seem- 
ed to represent to me a gigantic turnip hung up by the tip of the root 
to the ceiling and was something like an umbrella over the head of 
the minister. There was a sacrament-table affixed to the deacon's 
seat which could readily be adjusted in its place for communion 
service. 

I can well remember the toot from the chorister's pitch pipe, 
which gave the keynote for the tune to be sung, as well as after- 
wards the sound of the bass viol when it succeeded the pitch pipe. 
The front of the second church was towards the west. On its lowest 



V It 1 1 


■ «L 11 


mi / 

• 






- 

; 






1 jP\> N 






1hP9 






|#^mkL» 'll ! U 1 








ail 


1 i frj 




jBP 







THE CHURCH IN WINTER, 



33 

floor in the corners northwest and southwest were flights of stairs 
to the galleries and all around were roomy side pews (fourteen of 
them) topped with a bobbin balustrade made over high panelled par- 
titions. The central space inside of the wall pews, after containing 
only benches for several years, was furnished with two blocks of body 
pews, in each block eight so arranged that between these blocks and 
the wall pews a passageway was left ; and from the main entrance 
to the pulpit a wider passageway, distinctively termed the broad 
aisle. In this description it must not be forgotten that the galleries 
on the south side were for females, with a colored pew (so-called) 
over the stairs in the corner for colored females ; while in the north 
gallery were only men to be seen, with a corresponding pew for col- 
ored male in its corner. Who that ever saw the pulpit desk uphol- 
stered in a faded pink silk fabric, with long graceful tasselled fringe, 
can ever forget its rich and appropriate furnishings ? 

It was the general custom of the period to have a tithing man, 
legallv appointed, to look after disorderly boys and to be a terror 
to evil doers. The writer well remembers his great embarrassment 
and mortification, now more than seventy years since, when frol- 
icking and laughing, with some of his youthful companions, in a 
large corner pew of the gallery ; whereupon Squire Levi Corning, 
a magistrate and tithing man, stood up, with his tall imposing figure, 
using his clenched fist to pound upon the top of his pew and then 
stretching out his long index finger, he pointed to us, saying, "Those 
boys must not disturb these services." 



The third church, which is now standing, was built in 1858 on 
the site of the second church. The first step taken towards erecting 
it was on April the 8th, 1853. After considering all the matters 
involved it was decided to build. And this resolution was adopted 
January the 9th, 1858: That committee should be appointed to pre- 
pare for and to superintend the construction of a church. 

The committee consisted of Edmund F. Tracy, Daniel M. 
Brown, and William A. Johnson, and they were "instructed to build 
a new meeting-house, the proportion and cost to be determined by 
themselves," and Mr. Eleazer Bushnell, who had "taken unwearied 
pains to obtain subscription of funds for building," and who had 
been (unexpectedly) successful "in the endeavor," received the So- 
ciety's "unanimous thanks for his persevering and meritorious ser- 
vice." On January 16th, 1858, a resolution was adopted "that the 
front of the new meeting-house should stand where the front of the 
old one now stands." In prosecuting the work assigned the build- 
ing committee made much dispatch, and they reported the work com- 
pleted and received honorable discharge September 9th, 1858, and 
the societv "voted to obtain funds to complete the payment of the 
expenses incurred." 



34 

The congregation, while the edifice was in process of construc- 
tion, assembled for their worship in the conference-house which the 
society had owned since 1847 — and which by a purchase from the 
society had been the town-house of Lisbon since 1867. An assem- 
blage of Christian worshippers was gathered in the new structure 
for the first service September 15, 1858, and by an appropriate 
religious service it was dedicated to God. 

List of Deacons of the Church of Newent, with the Dates 
of Their Services. 

Joseph Perkins from 1723 to 1726 

Samuel Lothrop " 1723 " 1755 

Jabez Perkins " 1726 " 1742 

Isaac Lawrence " 1742 " 1756 

Jacob Perkins " 1756 " 1776 

Joseph Perkins " 1756 " 1794 

Andrew Tracy " 1756 " 1807 

Ebenezer Tracy " 1795 " 1803 

Jedediah Safford " 1804 " 1822 

William Adams " 1809 " 1835 

Levy Crosby " 1822 " 1831 

Freeman Tracy " 1834 " 1855 

Reuben Bishop " 1835 " I 855 

Elisha Paine Potter " 1851 " 1858 

Elias Bishop " 1855 " 1868 

Resigned 1869. 

Jedediah Lovett " 1861 " 

Jeremiah K. Adams " 1887 " 1893 

George Robinson " 1887 " 1898 

Henry P. Bushnell " 1893 " 

Edward C. Strong " 1898 " 

Before the Newent Society was divided more than one effort 
was made for its division. A memorial was made and addressed to 
the General Assembly and signed by sixteen inhabitants of Newent, 
with fourteen signers of the second church, and ten of the first so- 
ciety of Norwich, in May, 1745, making complaints of the distance 
and other extraordinary difficulties which rendered a division de- 
sirable. Newent Society presented by its agent a remonstrance to 
this request, and the Assembly did not grant the privilege. 

Fifteen years afterwards another petition, made by forty-three 
persons, was presented to the General Assembly on May, 1760, stat- 
ing that too great a distance was inconvenient, and the increased 
numbers at Newent rendered the meeting-house too small to accom- 
modate the people that might wish to attend worship there. Again 
Newent parish voted to oppose the petition of Capt. John Perkins 
and others for a new ecclesiastical society, and voted to choose an 



35 

agent to attend the General Assembly to oppose their petition there; 
and the prayer of the petitioners was not granted until the following 
year, May, 1761, when the seventh Society of Norwich was estab- 
lished and denominated "Hanover." as a compliment to George 
Guelph, who in 1760 became George the Third, King of Great 
Britain, as well as the Electoral Prince of Hanover, Germany. This 
new Hanover Society, before it was incorporated, raised by sub- 
scription £1,400 for the support of the gospel ministry. Its first 
edifice for public worship was ready as early as 1766 and the church 
was constituted with a membership of fourteen, and with one excep- 
tion all had been members of the Newent church. 



CHAPTER II. 

HANOVER PARISH. 
Established in 1761-1766. 

Messrs. Timothy Stone, Theodore Hinsdale, Panderson Aus- 
tin, and others, supplied the preaching, and two of those mentioned 
received and declined calls to settle as pastors. In 1768, August 
31st, the church voted to invite Mr. Andrew Lee to settle with 
them as their minister. Mr. Lee on October 1st, 1768, having re- 
plied affirmatively, was taken into the church as a member on the 
25th of October, 1768, and on the following day was ordained as 
their pastor, which relation was not dissolved till his death on the 
23d of August, 1832. This long pastorate of Dr. Lee in Hanover 
extended almost sixty-four years. In a confession of faith of this 
church on May 2d, 1787, they adopted nearly the same as that of 
the Newent church, although there had been all along some divergent 
views in regard to covenants, which were binding in holding persons 
baptized in infancy on church rolls, etc., etc. Whether Dr. Lee was 
at first (as some suspected) lax in respect to theology, Rev. Levi 
Nelson, with good reason, said of him, 1849: "He left behind him, 
when he had finished his labors, a united orthodox church." 

During the four or five years preceding Dr. Lee's decease minis- 
terial aid was afforded him by Rev. Henry Perkins, Rev. Daniel 
Hemingway, Mr. James Anderson, and Rev. Jonathan Cone. 
The said Mr. Perkins and Mr. Anderson received each, in 1828, a 
call to become colleague pastors, but neither became such. Mr. Cone, 
in 1829, was called with like result. 

Mr. Barnabas Phiney, in compliance with an invitation which 
the church had unanimously given him, became by regular ordination 
associate-pastor in February, 1830. And he retired November, 
1832. 

Rev. Philo Judson was installed pastor June, 1833, and retired 
July, 1834. Rev. Joseph Aver was pastor from September, 1837, 
to June, 1848, and the Rev. James A. Hazen from December, 1852. 
until he died on the 29th October, 1862. Between the pastorate of 
Mr. Judson and that of Mr. Aver, Rev. Daniel Waldo and Edward 
Cleveland supplied the service, and between Mr. Ayer's and Air. 
Hazen's terms the Rev. Ebenezer W. Robinson officiated. 



1769 to 

1769 " 
1791 


1791 
1791 
1806 


1 791 

1793 ' 
1796 " 
1806 " 


1793 
1796 

1819 
1830 


1819 

1830 





37 

LIST OF CHURCH DEACONS OF HANOVER. 

Before Hanover was separated from Lisbon the Deacon's names 
and terms were as follows : 

Joseph Bushnell from 

Nathan Bushnell " 

Reuben Peck 

Asa Witter " 

David Knight, Jr 

Nathan Lord 

Barnabas Huntington 

Ebenezer Allen 

William Lee 



AN HISTORICAL ADDRESS 
Of 125th Anniversary of the Hanover Church, 1891. 

An address before the Hanover Congregational Church cover- 
ing a period of a hundred and twenty-five years from its beginning 
in 1766 to 1891, has been pubished by the Bulletin Company of 
Norwich, Conn. 

< )f this interesting and full historical account by the Rev. L. 
II. Tliggins (the pastor, in 1891, when the celebration took place), 
I cannot speak too highly. Its completeness for the Hanover 
< hurch-History is so well established that no historical scholar need 
expect to add much to, or improve upon it. It is the best record to 
be found in print, not only of the church, but of the town's history. 

In the year 1843 two Methodist Societies were gathered within 
the boundaries of Lisbon. Those Societies were not of long duration 
and did not make a very marked history in the town, and not many 
facts concerning them are now obtainable. 

After Hanover was divided from Newent these two Methodist 
Societies and six other parishes remained parochially within Nor- 
wich, and territorially were constituted parts of its township twen- 
ty-five years longer, and thus Norwich, as to municipal concerns, 
continued so much longer a unit. Had her attempt made in 1745 
to divide Newent been successful she could not have so long main- 
tained so broad a territory. The inhabitants of Norwich had gained 
great advantages by partitioning its township into eight parishes, 
and keeping them under her own supervision for a long while. The 
civil interests and obligations of these parishes were still inconven- 
ient to them in distances to travel to the town centre, where increas- 
ing population had demanded and obtained more frequent town- 
meetings, to meet the urgent necessities of the people, and had to be 
borne for twenty years or more. The colonial Legislature repeatedly 



38 

denied all requests for division into different townships, till Norwich 
with one dissenting voice agreed that three of the parishes lying 
north and east might be made into one new town, and with 
one dissenting voice only, agreed that two of the parishes, with 
part of another, lying north and east, might be made into another 
new town. Two memorials were presented to the General Assem- 
bly asking it to carry into effect that design, and the result was that 
the Assembly in 1786, instead of making from Norwich two new 
towns, made three — namely, Bozrah, Franklin, and Lisbon (except 
that part of Preston, which afterwards became Griswold, was not 
included in the act incorporating Lisbon). The joint petition of 
Newent and Hanover was granted, and these two parishes remained 
together, each forming a part of Lisbon's township seventy-five years 
— till 1861 — when Lisbon, in turn, itself was divided. At this time 
Norwich had been in existence as a town two hundred years, Newent 
as a parish nearly one hundred and fifty years. Hanover just 
about one hundred years after it had been made a parish became 
in 1861 a portion of a new town called Sprague, and from that date 
(1861) we do not connect its history longer as properly belonging to 
the town of Lisbon ; although the social bond was not severed, the 
people cherished kindly a great interest in each other's welfare, and 
thev really feel that they are yet, as one people, not separated, though 
represented in two townships. 



CHAPTER III. 

LISBON. 
Its History from 1786. 

This Connecticut Lisbon was doubtless named after Lisbon in 
Portugal, from the fact that Hezekiah Perkins and Jabez Perkins, 
and other commercial shippers traded from Norwich with Lisbon in 
Southern Europe and that probably suggested this name. 

Among the names of those that came early to Norwich (the 
Newent-Lisbon territory) from Ipswich, Mass., who became prom- 
inent in the early settlement of this part of Connecticut were the 
Bishops, Burnhams, Kinsmans, Saffords, Stevens, and many more 
quite as important, and later on they were reinforced by the Potters, 
Comings. Lovetts, Aliens, Crosbys, Whittakers, Rathbuns, Brom- 
ley*, and Bottoms. These were all energetic, hard-working men 
who subdued a wild tract of land and made it ready to cultivate 
crops for maintaining their families. 

Says Rev. Mr. Chipman, in looking up their history after 
wood had become valuable and when they no longer had to burn it up 
to get it out of the way : They found a good market value for wood 
if it could be hauled four or five miles. And he cites the example 
of James Burnham in 1774, who had "in twenty years hauled twenty- 
five hundred loads of wood, mostly cut by himself and without ac- 
cident of any kind, to a market five miles distant, for which he re- 
ceived $1,100. The same man had expended five hundred days' 
labor in subduing and fencing two acres of land ; built with his 
own hands four hundred rods of stone fence, supplied himself with a 
new house, commodious and well furnished to fill the place of one 
with its contents destroyed by fire. Given to the town for a highway 
one hundred rods of land, erected a school house and painted it, and 
presented it to his school district, and for several years, without 
charge, furnished most of the fuel to warm it." He was born in 
Lisbon and is a good type of what a Lisbon man can do. Many 
still living will recall, as the writer can, these old farmers clad in 
their leather aprons or sheepskin, tanned pliable to protect their 
homespun garments. 

"The viands accompanying the cider (of the olden time) were 
sweet, well-grown Indian corn, beans made savory by well-fattened 
pork, well cooked in great brick ovens" which the wives of those 
early settlers knew how to serve in a most appetizing manner. The 
fathers and the mothers were vigorous thinkers and co-operated with 
their early pastors in aiding their children to become "like unto 
their fathers, men of solid character." Lisbon's children have been 



40 

able by their schools and their superior teachers, and the private 
teaching of their pastors, to inspire the youth of both sexes in long- 
ings for knowledge, and the ability to get it and apply it to them- 
selves. In illustration of this fact we have only to look at the 
long roll or record of men, born and raised in Lisbon, who have 
emigrated to other parts of the country and become eminent in all 
the professions, as well as the other walks of life. 

The longevity of Lisbon people has become proverbial. Over 
thirty persons can be recalled who have lived over ninety years, and 
quite a number have exceeded a hundred years. One of the men 
born early in Lisbon, the third Jabez Perkins (the father of 
Erastus Perkins), died in 1853, aged almost one hundred and 
two years. Many more instances of those very aged could be cited 
as having been born, lived, and died in Lisbon's present territory. 

Connecticut in 1784 decreed that every slave child born after 
October in that year should become free on attaining twenty-five 
years of age. The records of Lisbon present an entry made in 1789 
of the birth of a slave and the name of the owner, which entry was 
made to make sure to that child the freedom of that act. 

From that period onward there was continued an increasing op- 
position to slavery in the State, advancing and hastening that great 
strife which was to come, and which should forever wipe out the 
system of bondage in our land. In one modest, humble home of 
Lisbon there lived a family of the name of Stevens, whose son, named 
Aaron Dwight Stevens, had such an aversion to slavery that he lost 
his life in joining with another native of Connecticut in hostile ef- 
forts, well meant but ill-advised, against . American slavery, and 
came to his death, as the other man John Brown did, near Harper's 
Ferry in 1859. 

Lisbon was ever ready to take a share in her country's strifes in 
warfare in 1812-15 as well as in the Great Rebellion. We shall en- 
deavor to give a list of some of their names further on. 

Lisbon's inhabitants were mostly farmers in good circumstances 
who have always been substantially mindful of the claims of man- 
kind upon them in all emergencies throughout their whole history. 
They recognized that pauperism was from general shiftlessness or 
from excessive dissipation, and there was very little sympathy with 
those addicted to such habits ; hence scarcely any who ever needed to 
appeal to the town authorities for aid were found among her resi- 
dents. Suits at law for crime were almost unknown — no man born 
in Lisbon has been known to deserve a felon's doom. 

While Lisbon has not failed to furnish not a few persons who 
have entered the various professions, and followed the various me- 
chanical arts, she herself has but few following those trades and arts 
among her present population. They have had to seek other fields 
to follow their calling with any success. While Lisbon hardly sup- 
ports a doctor or a lawyer, or maintains a post-office centre, or mer- 
chant store, for the convenience of her people, she still is not very 
remote from these desirable conveniences. 



4' 

Lisbon has had two turnpike roads running through her terri- 
tory from north to south constructed by incorporated companies, 
which had toll gates for gathering money of all travelers to pay 
cost of construction and repairs. At the beginning of the latter 
part of the last century the toll gates were abolished and the roads 
abandoned to the town for care and maintenance. One of these 
turnpikes was from Norwich Town over Lovett's Bridge north to 
Canterbury and Brooklyn, the other starting from Norwich Landing 
crossed Lathrop's Bridge (near Tunnel Hill), kept on a parallel line 
with the Quinabaug River, and crossed it at the jewett City Bridge : 
thus proceeding northward and eastward through Plainfield to 
Boston and Providence. Both these turnpikes maintained stage 
lines carrying United States mails and passengers, which daily 
brought to these farmers and their families a close touch of outside 
life. ' 




U. S. MAIL BETWEEN NEW YORK AND BOSTON. 



Lisbon has now two railroads passing through her territory, 
one of which gives her a station recently denominated Lisbon; an- 
other station called Versailles, on the same railroad, is situated be- 
tween Lisbon and Sprague. Still another station, on the Norwich 
and Worcester Railroad at Jewett City, is very close to her eastern 
border and much used by all residents of Lisbon. 

By a recent aid of a Free Rural Delivery, No. 4, from Norwich, 
Lisbon gets a daily service by the Postal System. All of which is 
duly appreciated, and perhaps in no very distant day may be supple- 
mented by a trolley line, which now is much needed. 

Lisbon's misfortunes have been not to have a central growth, 
"a pivotal point" ; her situation has been by the side of two consider- 
able rivers, furnishing very fine water-powers, but when developed 
they have increased her population upon her outer borders, and have 
been grasped away from her to increase and enhance other new 
towns, when she should have got more benefit from them. The old 
residents of Lisbon used to complain that their taxes were made too 



42 

high in support of so many bridges to build and keep in repair. 
They had to bear half of the expense of Jewett City Bridge, across 
the Quinabaug, then across the Shetucket there were three others to 
be maintained — viz.. Lord's Bridge, Lovett's Bridge, and Lathrop's 
Bridge, which by frequent floods would be washed away and need 
rebuilding. There has been recently built at Taft another bridge 
across the Shetucket, which gives a fourth on that river. However, 
Lisbon gets many advantages by the overflow from these new vil- 
lages springing up on her borders. Within Lisbon's former terri- 
tory, Hanover, now the township of Sprague, it had but one consid- 
erable water-power stream running through her territory, which 
Lisbon lost in forming the new township of Sprague. 

No small town or territory was ever favored with a greater 
percentage of water-power privileges than Lisbon, or ever got so 
little from such favorable advantages. 

She had on the east side the Quinabaug River, from the Aspi- 
nook Bleachery in Jewett City down to its union with the She- 
tucket, where there is said to be undeveloped power, now near 
the railroad tunnel. Here also is now being constructed a large 
plant to utilize compressed air for power. 

( )n her western border the Shetucket River, rich with water- 
power, gave the splendid results seen at Baltic Village, in the 
township of Sprague. Still lower down the river and just above 
Lovett's Bridge the Shetucket River has had a dam erected which 
has created a manufacturing village at Occum ; between that vil- 
lage and Taft below there is said to be an undeveloped power for 
future use. The immense factories at Taft, called the "Ponemah 
Mills," are held in great admiration of all who are interested in man- 
ufacturing textile products in our country. With the above rivers 
on each side, and the "Little River" running through the centre of 
the town, Lisbon gained great privileges. The most northern priv- 
ilege on the Little River has been the Allen's Woollen Mill, owned 
and operated by that family, until recently, for several generations. 
Formerly, just below the Allen's Mill, was established a rubber fac- 
tory, which made shoes for several years, but was aferwards moved 
to Colchester. 

Still further down the stream an old saw mill and grist mill 
existed, which was changed and utilized by a German named 
Obernau, who established a paper manufactory there, and after- 
wards a power privilege just above it was developed, by erecting 
other paper mills, which were operated by Obernau, Reade & 
Branch successfully during the war of the rebellion and subse- 
quently. 

Next below on Little River, nearly one hundred years ago, 
there was a yarn mill called John Gray's Factory. It was later 
used and improved by Hiram Tarbox in manufacturing jewelry. 

The village was then called Eagleville for quite a long period ; 
it now goes by the name of Versailles. This Versailles power from 
time to time has been very much enlarged and improved and sue- 



43 

cessfully operated by different parties in making cloth fabrics, for 
which it has a large and splendid factory. At the present time 
it is operated by the Uncas Manufacturing Company of Norwich. 
All the thrift and wealth of the above villages has been lost to Lis- 
bon and gained by Spragne through the division of the town in 1861. 

The marked increase of population from 1850 to i860 of over 
three hundred persons was due to the growth of the Baltic Village, 
which is now a part of the town of Sprague, having been separated 
from Lisbon the following year, 1861 — thus leaving Lisbon at 
the next census, taken in 1870. but 502. For the next following 
years after Sprague was set off Lisbon did not increase much, if 
any, nor will she very soon perhaps again return a thousand souls, 
for her territory is very small — I think the smallest town, or the 
smallest save one in the State. Lisbon, unlike many towns, had 
but few other than those of English descent ; formerly, nearly all 
were so ; but more recent observation brings in a greater number 
or percentage of foreign born citizens. 

The smallness of a town or county does not always militate 
against its usefulness to mankind in a larger sphere. Rev. Mr. 
Chipman, from whom I quote largely in writing upon this point, 
says: "The small county, Buckingham, in England, when it fur- 
nished to that country the one man, John Hampden, rendered to 
England a more valuable service than any of its greater counties, 
even collectively taken, ever gave. The hamlet of Scrooby, in 
England, hardly to be found on a map, while it trained such men 
as William Brewster and William Bradford, equalled and sur- 
passed the greatest cities in conferring benefits on the English nation, 
as well as on the whole world. The roll of the inhabitants of Lisbon 
has heretofore contained a part of the descendants of those men, 
and in that roll are yet numbered persons whose surnames are 
derived from that great man who, at Scrooby and Amsterdam, was 
the pastor of those men — John Robinson. 



No search has been specially directed for ascertaining how many 
Lisbon families are descended from the company, then little regarded 
and since so renowned, which were landed from the Mayflower 
at Plymouth in 1620. But it has incidentally appeared that descend- 
ants of at least twelve individuals in that company — namely ( Ruling 
Elder) William Brewster; (Merchant) Isaac Allerton ; (Assistant) 
John Howland ; and ( Warrior) Miles Standish — have lived in 
Lisbon. 

Lisbon has sent out many distinguished men to settle other 
iowms ; several removed their residence to Norwich Landing ; other 
of her sons were early emigrants to New Hampshire, Vermont, 
Massachusetts, Central New York, and Eastern Ohio. A few went 
to Murrayfield, Mass., which they named Norwich ; of late years 
that name has been changed to Huntington, although one part of 
the town has a post-office still called Norwich. 



44 

The towns of Kinsman and Kirkland in Ohio were named from 
Lisbon men who settled there. Among Lisbon's sons may be men- 
tioned members of congress, judges, lawyers, doctors, clergymen, 
and missionaries. 



Rev. Daniel Waldo, although not a native resident of Lisbon, 
but so near her border in Scotland, was highly beloved and re- 
vered by the Lisbon people. He was early in Home Missionary 
■ work in New York State ; he was acting minister of the second 
church of Lisbon in 1834. He was born 10th September, 1762; 
graduate Yale College 1788; died July 30, 1864, nearly one hundred 
and two years old. He was called Father Waldo, and was a chaplain 
in the U. S. Congress from 1856 to 1858, and then ninety-four years 
of age ; showing another instance of longevity of natives of Lisbon 
and vicinity- 
Rev. James Alexander Hazen was born at West Springfield, 
Mass., 1813; graduate Yale College 1834; died October 29, 1862. 
He was pastor of the second church of Lisbon from his installation, 
December 1, 1862, till his death. He was the last minister in Han- 
over society while she remained an integral part of Lisbon. As 
Hanover is no longer in Lisbon, but in the town of Sprague since 
1 86 1, we omit following her history from that date. 




MAP OF LISBON. 



CHAPTER IV. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



Dr. Joseph Lathrop, D.D., was born in Lisbon, 1731 ; graduate 
Yale College 1754; died 1820. His descendant, Samuel, graduate 
Yale College 1792; died 1846; who for several year? was a Member 
of Congress — from 1818 to 1826. 



Rev. Nathan Perkins, D.D., fourth son of Captain Mathew 
and Mrs. Hannah Bishop Perkins, was born in Lisbon (Newent), 
May 18, 1749; graduate C. N. Y. 1770; died January 18, 1838. 
Preached at West Hartford after he had been settled in Wrentham, 

Mass. 



Gen. Simon Perkins, born in Newent, Lisbon, in 1771 ; died 
November 19, 1844. He was a land surveyor when a young man 
about twenty-four. He married Nancy Anna Bishop; removed 
to Warren, Ohio, in 1804. He is said to have done valuable service 
in tbe war of 1812-1815. His father, Simon Perkins, was a lieu- 
tenant in the Continental Army. Born October 25, 1737; died 
September 7, 1778. He was the second son of Dr. Joseph Perkins 
and Mrs. Mary Bushnell Perkins, and a grandson of Deacon Joseph 
Perkins and of his first wife, Martha Morgan Perkins. This 
( reneral Simon Perkins, who removed to Warren, Ohio, became 
a thrifty and prominent citizen of that place. He was the father 
of the late Henry Bishop Perkins, who died in Warren March 2, 
1902, who was well known throughout the State and country as a 
multi-millionaire, and has left three children, now living in Ohio. 
One of his sons, Henry Bishop Perkins, Jr., died October, 1900. 



Hannah Perkins, born in Newent, Lisbon, July 7, 1701 ; died 
1745. She was the daughter of Jabez Perkins, Esq., and Mrs. 
Hannah Lathrop Perkins. She married October 16, 1718, Capt. 
Joshua Huntington, born December 13, 1698; died August 26, 1745. 
He was one of the earliest of the shippers from Norwich Landing, 
afterwards called Chelsea. The oldest child of Capt. Joshua and 
of Mrs. Hannah ( Perkins ) Huntington was Jabez, born August 7, 
1719; died October 5, 1786. He had been a successful merchant 
in Norwich and was well known in the West India trade. During 
1750-1763, two or three years excepted, he was a Representative 



46 

in the Colonial Legislature, and was Speaker of the Lower House 
1 760- 1 763. He was one of the State's Council of Safety in the 
period of the Revolution; appointed in 1776 one of the two Major- 
Generals of the Connecticut Militia, and a year afterwards was a 
sole Major-General. One of his children was Jedadiah Huntington, 
born August 4, 1743 ; graduate H. C. 1763 ; died September 25, 18 18. 
He was a Brigadier-General in the Continental Army, afterwards 
Brevet Major-General ; Sheriff of New London County ; Treasurer of 
State, Connecticut, and a member of the Convention by which Con- 
necticut accepted the U. S. Constitution. Appointed in 1789 Collector 
of the Customs for New London district, and held that position under 
four National Administrations. He was one of the original Cor- 
porate Members of the A. B. C. F. M. One of his sons was Jabez 
Huntington, graduate Yale College 1784, a President of the Nor- 
wich Bank ; another was Joshua Huntington, graduate Yale College 
1804, a pastor of the old South Church in Boston: another son 
was Ebenezer, born December 26, 1754; graduate Yale College 
1775; died June 17, 1834; a Brigadier-General chosen in 1810, and 
in 1817 a Member of Congress; also a Major-General of Connec- 
ticut Militia. One of the daughters of Major-General Jabez was 
Mary, wife of the Rev. Joseph Strong, D.D., of Norwich ; and 
another was Elizabeth, wife of Col. John Chester, of Wethersfield. 
whose daughter Elizabeth was wife of Eleazer F. Backus, of Albany, 
N. Y., and was the mother of the Rev. John Chester Backus, of 
Baltimore, Md., and of Rev. Trumbull Backus, D.D., of Schenec- 
tadv, N. Y. 



Susanna Perkins, born in Newent, Lisbon, January 29, 1752; 
died September 10, 1810 ; was a daughter of Capt. Mathew and Mrs. 
Hannah Bishop Perkins; she married August 13, 1772, Rev John 
Staples, of Taunton, Mass; born 1744; died February 15, 1804; 
first pastor of the second church in Canterbury till his death. 
Among their eleven children were Seth Perkins, graduate Y. C. 
1797; died 1 86 1 ; a distinguished lawyer, resident in New Haven 
and in New York ; appointed with Nathaniel Terry and David 
Deming, 181 5, to revise all the militia laws of Connecticut. Job 
Perkins, graduate Y. C. 1808; died 1861 ; and Sophos. graduate 
Y. C. 1809; died 1826. 



Rev. William Potter was born in Lisbon, February 1, 1796, the 
second son of William and Mrs. Olive Fitch Potter. William, the 
last named, was born in Ipswich, Mass., January 29, 1758; the 
second son of Anthony and Sarah (Fuller) Potter, said Anthony 
having died in November, 1758; his widow married Josiah Wood. 
Her son, William, was brought by them to Scotland, Conn., in 1762, 
from which he moved to Newent, Lisbon, in 1777, where he died 
May 27, 1832. The wife of the above named William Potter, Sr., 



47 

was a daughter of William and Alary ( Paine ) Fitch, the former 
a son of Hon. James Fitch, of Canterbury, Conn. ; the latter a 
daughter of Rev. Elisha Paine, Jr., originally a lawyer in Canter- 
bury, Conn., Pastor of a Separatist Church in Bridgehampton, L. L. 
and in his time closely connected with the origin of the denomina- 
tion called Separatists, now extinct. William Potter, Jr., attended 
the Academies at Litchfield, now Morris, and at Clinton, X. Y., 
and was approved by the Windham Association, Januarv 20, 1820, 
and later in the same year was ordained at Killingly, Conn. He 
was a missionary to the Cherokee Indians for some twenty vears 
at Creek Path, Ala. Since then he has been in ministerial service 
in Ohio He married Laura Weld, of Braintree. Vt., a niece of 
Rev. Ludivicus Weld, Pastor in Hampton, Conn., from 1792 to 1824. 



Dr. Jedediah Burnham, born in Xewent, Lisbon, April 3, 1755; 
died in Kinsman, Ohio, March 11, 1840; was the oldest child of 
Capt. Benjamin Burnham, Jr., and of his first wife, Mrs. Jemima 
(Perkins) Burnham. Benjamin Burnham, St., along with three 
brothers and a nephew, were early emigrants to Lisbon from Ipswich 
(now Essex), Mass. He married, April 20, 1727, Mary, born Jan- 
uary 20, 1707-8, daughter of Robert and Rebecca (Burley) Kins- 
man, born in Ipswich, Mass., December 21, 1696: died October 15, 
1737. Dr. Burnham, after receiving medical tuition from Dr. 
Joseph Perkins, Sr., practiced his profession in his native place until 
his removal to Ohio in the spring of 1817, and was also before 
his removal employed much in Parish and town affairs. He 
married, April 2J, 1799, Lydia Kent, born September 19, 1752. 
Their oldest son, Jedediah, born July 19, 1806, was father of Jede- 
diah Kent Burnham. graduate Y. C. 1854; an attorney at Fort 
Smith, Ark. 



Rev. Aaron Kinne was born in Lisbon, son of Moses and 
Abigail (Read) Kinne, April 26, 1742, graduate Y. C. 1765; died 
9th July, 1824. He was a pastor in Groton, Conn. He was a 
home missionary in New York and Berkshire County, Mass. Mar- 
ried Mary (Wol worth) Morgan and they had eleven children; two 
sons graduated at Yale College 1794 and 1804. 



Dr. Elisha Perkins, third son of Dr. Joseph Perkins, born in 
Newent, Lisbon, Januarv 16, t 74 1 : died in New York, September 
6, 1799. After completing his study with his father he settled in 
Plainfield, Conn., and had an extensive practice as a physician. He 
invented, about 1796, a sort of mechanical remedy called Tractors, 
which was thought to effect remarkable cures bv some. 



Dr. Elisha's son. Rev. John Douglass Perkins, graduate Y. C. 
:j<>\ ; died 1847; was a home missionary in 1795. His son, Rev. 



4 8 

George Perkins, graduate Y. C. 1803; died 1852; was a pastor 
in Jewejt City, and his son, Benjamin Douglass Perkins, graduate 
Y. C. 1794, died 18 10, was an eminent bookseller in New York, 
and his daughter, Susan, married first Josiah Lyndon Arnold, Esq., 
graduate D. C. 1788; died 1796; and second, Hon. Charles Marsh, 
LL.D., graduate D. C. 1786; died 1849. She was the mother (by 
first marriage) of the Hon. Lemuel Hastings Arnold, graduate 
D. C. 181 1 ; died 1852, who was a Member of Congress and a Gov- 
ernor of Rhode Island. Susan also was mother of Lyndon Arnold 
Marsh, graduate D. C. 1819, and of Hon. George Perkins Marsh, 
LL.D., graduate D. C. 1820, who was Minister of the United States 
to Turkey, and to Italy. A grandson of Dr. Elisha Perkins above 
was Dr. Elisha H. Perkins, of Baltimore, Md. 



Dr. Joseph Perkins was born in Newent, Lisbon. November 2=,, 
1704; graduate Y. C. 1727; died July 7, 1794. He was eldest son of 
Deacon Joseph and Mrs. Martha (Morgan) Perkins. Deacons. 
Joseph and Jabez Perkins, and their brother Mathew Perkins, 
were among the earlier settlers of Lisbon. They were born at 
Ipswich, Mass. They were the sons of Jacob and Mrs. Elizabeth 
Perkins. Said Jacob, to whom his father's homestead was be- 
queathed, was one of the six children who, with their parents, John 
and Judith Perkins, came from England in 1631. This John Per- 
kins was among the first twelve occupants of Ipswich, founded by 
Hon. John Winthrop, Jr., founder afterwards of New London, 
Conn. Elizabeth, a daughter of Jacob, and Mrs. Elizabeth Perkins, 
was by her husband, Thomas Boardman, mother of Margaret 
(Boardman), wife of Capt. Richard Manning, of Ipswich, whose 
daughter, Anstice, became the wife of Samuel Chipman, of Salem, 
Mass. 



Dr. Perkins, after applying himself to the study of medicine 
and surgery, established himself in Newent and soon showed him- 
self an able practitioner. In both departments of his profession he 
had alike knowledge and skill. He continued to practice until near 
the close of his life. Patients sometimes were resident at his house, 
making it substantially, if not formally, a private hospital. He was 
especially distinguished, as has been said, as a surgeon. The 
"heroic" practice, as by him exhibited, was not the daring of an 
experimenter who was rash, but the courage of one who knew exi- 
gencies and responsibilities, and as well knew what resources he 
had for meeting them. His abilities were appreciated in other than 
professional lines. He was elected selectman when a little over 
thirty ; was made a deacon of the church at the age of thirty-eight 
years, and to the last justified the confidence he had gained. Dr. 
Perkins married first, July 17, 1728, Lydia Pierce, of Plainfield ; she 
died January 8, 1730, aged twenty- four years. He married again. 



49 

July 28, 1730, Mary, the second daughter of Dr. Caleb Bushnell, of 
Norwich. She died February 8, 1795, aged eighty-seven. By the 
first marriage Dr. Perkins had a daughter, Lvdia, who married 
Daniel Kirkland (probably Daniel, born October 1, 1725, son of 
Rev. Daniel Kirkland). By this latter wife there were several 
children. Dr. Joseph Perkins, Jr., oldest son of Dr. Joseph 
Perkins, Sr., born August 11, 1733; died May 5, 1775. He was 
instructed by his father and practiced in his native town, Xewent, 
Lisbon, until smallpox terminated his life. He married Joanna, 
oldest daughter of Benjamin Kinsman and his wife, Mary (Burn- 
bam) Kinsman, who was born May 30, 1733. She married the 
second time, on January 16, 1780, Pember Calkins, of Xew London. 
Dr. Perkins's children were four sons, viz. : Major Joseph Perkins, 
a Captain in tbe Continental Army, merchant in Norwich, whose 
son, Alfred Elijah Perkins, M.D., graduate Y. C. 1830, died in 1834, 
a generous benefactor of Yale College. His daughter, Mary Wat- 
kinson Perkins, was the wife of the late Hon. John A. Rockwell, 
M. C. from 1847 t° 1849, an( l tne mother of Alfred Perkins Rock- 
well, graduate Y. C. 1855, late professor there. She was also the 
mother of Joseph Perkins Rockwell, P. B. at Y. C. 1868; also of 
John A. Rockwell, M.D., who more recently lived at Lisbon on the 
Tracy farm, which he owned for a while ; also of Benjamin Perkins, 
graduate Y. C. 1785; died in 1841. Elijah Perkins, M.D., graduate 
Y. C. 1787; died 1806; a practitioner in Philadelphia; and Hon, 
Elias Perkins, graduate Y. C. 1786; died 1845; M. C. from 1801 to 
1803, and was Mayor of New London 1829-32. He was the father 
of Nathaniel Shaw Perkins, M.D., graduate Y. C. 1812, who died 
1870; he practiced medicine in New London, and was father of 
Thomas Shaw Perkins, who graduated Y. C. 1812, and died 1844. 



Dr. Eliphas Perkins was born in Newent, Lisbon, 1753: grad- 
uate Y. C. 1776; died at Athens, Ohio, 1828. After receiving 
medical instruction with Dr. Jabez Fitch, of Canterbury, he estab- 
lished himself in medical practice at Yergennes, Vt., whence he 
removed to Marietta, Ohio, in 1799. He was an able physician, a 
patron of learning, and a devout Christian, and was treasurer of the 
' )bio University. His father was Capt. John Perkins, born October 
5, 1709; died April 16, 1761 ; a son of Deacon Joseph Perkins. His 
mother, the second wife of his father, was Lydia (Tracy) Perkins. 
The above Dr. Eliphas's wife was Lydia Fitch, second daughter of 
the above-mentioned Dr. Fitch, and who died in t8oo in Marietta, 
Ohio. Of their children the eldest was Chauncev Fitch Perkins, 
M.D., born 1782: died 1872; a practitioner in Athens, Ohio, and at 
Erie, Pa. The youngest was Rev. Henry Perkins, D.D., born 
February 9, 1796; graduate O. L T . 1816. In Allentown, N. J., from 
1820 to January, 1880, a pastor there, and at his death still retain- 
ing the pastoral relation. 



5° 

Dr. Caleb Perkins, born at Newent, Lisbon, 1747, the youngest 
son of Dr. Joseph Perkins, Sr., was a physician who practiced his 
profession in West Hartford, Conn. His wife was a sister of John 
Trumbull, LL.D., who graduated Y. C. 1767, and a daughter of Rev. 
John Trumbull, who graduated Y. C. 1735, and was first pastor of 
the church in Westbury, Watertown. 



Dr. Abijah Perkins, born in Newent, Lisbon, August, 1755; 
died August 31, 1782. He was a surgeon in the revolutionary army 
and was captured by the British forces, and his death occurred from 
hardship endured while held as a prisoner. His parents were Capt. 
John Perkins and Lydia (Tracy) Perkins. 



Simeon Perkins, Esq., emigrated to Liverpool, Nova Scotia, in 
1762. Said to have been born in Norwich, February 24, 1735. He 
died May 9, 181 2, having been a Judge of Probate, and held various 
other official positions in that Province. 

He undoubtedly was born in Newent, Norwich, or Lisbon, 
February, 1735, as he was baptized there on record February, 1735. 
and was the son of Jacob Perkins, Esq., and his wife, Mrs. Jemima 
(Leonard) Perkins. 



Enoch Perkins, Esq., fifth son of Capt. Mathew and Mrs. 
Hannah (Bishop) Perkins, born at Newent, Lisbon, August 11, 
1760; graduate Y. C. 1781, and was made a tutor there from 1784 
to 1786; died in 1828. He was a legal practitioner in Hartford, 
Conn. He married Anna, born February 19, 1764, a daughter of 
Rev. Timothy Pitkin, who graduated Y. C. 1747. a son of Gov. 
William Pitkin. A son of Enoch Perkins and his wife was Hon. 
Thomas Clap Perkins, born July 29, 1798, and graduate Y. C. 1818; 
died October 11, 1870; an attorney in Hartford and a revisor of the 
statutes of Connecticut, and often a State Senator, and elected a 
Justice of the Supreme Court, an office which he declined. His 
children by his wife Mary, a sister of Rev. Lyman Beecher, D.D., 
were Charles Enoch Perkins, who graduated W. C. 1853, an attor- 
ney-at-law at Hartford, Conn., and Frederick Beecher Perkins, who 
graduated Y. C. i860. Another son of Enoch Perkins and of Mrs. 
Anna ( Pitkin ) Perkins, was Rev. George William Perkins, who 
graduated Y. C. 1824 ; died November 15, 1856; was successively a 
pastor at Montreal, Canada ; in Meriden, Conn., and a pastor and 
editor in Chicago, 111. 



Ephraim Perkins, Esq., the third son of Capt. Mathew and 
Mrs. Hannah Bishop Perkins, born July 8, 1745; died April 23, 
1813, was a prominent and leading citizen of Becket, Mass., where 
he emigrated in 1770. He married, November 7, 1771. Mary Chap- 



5 1 

lin, of Mansfield, now Chaplin, and was the father of Mathew 
Perkins, who graduated Y. C. 1799, and died 1808; he was an 
attorney at Lisbon, N. Y. ; and still another son, and brother to 
this last, was Hon. Bishop Perkins, who died in Ogdensburgh, 
X. Y.. and was a Member of Congress, as well as a Member of the 
Constitutional Convention of New York. 



Samuel Perkins, seventh son of Capt. Mathew and Hannah 
Bishop Perkins, born September 14, 1766; graduate Y. C. 1785; 
died September 22. 1850. He was approved as a candidate for the 
ministry by the Xew Haven Association, 1789. He lived in Wind- 
ham and was a deacon of a church there. He married Anna Hunt- 
ington, and was the father of Samuel Huntington Perkins, graduate 
Y, C. 1 81 7. a lawyer in Philadelphia, Pa. 



Mary Lee, born in Hanover, Lisbon, April 16, 1771. a daughter 
of Rev. Andrew Lee, D.D. ; married February 12. 1795, William 
Perkins, of Ashford, who graduated Y. C. 1792: died 1820. One 
of the children of said William Perkins and his wife, Mary Lee, 
was George Perkins, born December 24, 1803; graduate Y. C. 1828; 
a lawyer and resident in Norwich, who died October 13, 1874. 



Dr. Jabez Fitch was born in Newent, Lisbon, May 23, 1728 or 
1 7 '29 ; he was a second son of Col. Jabez Fitch and his wife, 
Lydia (Gale) Fitch. This Jabez Fitch, Jr., and Hannah Per- 
kins were married by Peter Powers. His ancestors were of the 
first settlers. Major James Fitch appears as an original proprietor 
of large tracts of Lisbon territory. These Fitches were allied to the 
Bradfords and Adams families of Massachusetts ; some of them 
had been residents in Canterbury ; one of Dr. Fitch's children was 
Rev. Ebenezer Fitch, D.D.. born 1756; died 1833; graduate Y. C. 
1777, and a tutor there eight years, and the first president of Wil- 
liams College. Later he was a pastor in West Bloomfield, N. J. 



Abigail Porter, of Xewent, Lisbon, married, February 25, 
1776, Jacob Galusha, whose son, Hon. Jonas Galusha, born 1753, 
was in 181^ Governor of Vermont, and died in Shaftsburv, Vt., 
1834. 



John Kinsman, born in Newent, Lisbon, 1753; died in Kins- 
man, Ohio, August 17, 1813. He was the oldest son of Capt. 
Jeremiah and his wife, Sarah Thomas Kinsman. John married 
Rebecca Perkins, of Lisbon, October 4, 1792; removed June 14, 
1804. to Ohio, and was chief among the founders of the township 
by him purchased, where his posterity perpetuates his name. 



52 



Rev. James, a son of James Abel, whose parents were Alpheus 
and Elizabeth Abel, baptized at Hanover, Lisbon, April 20, 1803; 
graduate Y. C. 1819; was pastor at Andover Theological Seminary 
in 1822 ; afterwards in other places. He died at Oswego, N. Y., 
May, 1868. 



Rev. Beriah Green, born in Hanover, Lisbon, 1800; died May 4, 
1874; graduate M. C. 18 19. He was afterwards in several positions 
of trust and importance, and was made President of Oneida College 
Institute, Whitesboro, N. Y. He had a brother, Rev. John Smith 
Green, born in Lisbon, graduate Andover Theological Seminary 
1827, who was ordained minister and went as missionary of the 
A. B. C. F. M., at Wailuku, or Maui. S. I. Since 1843 he was 
missionary of the A. M. Association at Makawao, Sandwich Islands. 
He also had a son, Rev. J. P. Green, also a missionary at Oahu, S. I. 
Rev. J. S. Green died January 5, 1878, aged eighty-one years. 



Luther Manning, M.D., born in Hanover, Lisbon, January 9, 
1786; died in 1835; married on January 10, 1810, Lydia, born 
January 19, 1782; died December 11, 181 1, a daughter of Jedediah 
Burnham, of Newent, Lisbon. He was a practitioner in Scotland, 
Conn. His father, Dr. Luther Manning, a physician in Hanover, 
Lisbon, was born in Scotland, Conn.; died May 7, 1813; was a son 
of Hezekiah and Mrs. Mary Manning, and married October 12, 
1779, Sarah Smith, of Scotland, who died June 5, 1840, aged 
eightv-five vears. 



Rev. John Adams Allen, a son of Harvey Allen and Mrs. 
Luceba (Adams) Allen, was born in Hanover, Lisbon, December 1, 
1816; graduate O. C. 1842, and Ob. Theo. Seminary in 1845; mar- 
ried, 1847, Elmira Pierce, and was pastor in Sheffield, 111. Said 
Harvey and Mrs. Luceba Allen removed to Ohio in 18 17. Their 
other children were Rev. Nathan W. Allen, of Oregon, and Dr. 
Charles P. Allen, of Princeton, 111., who has been not onlv a 
physician, but a lawver and a missionary among the Indian tribes 
of "the West. 



Dr. Daniel Gordon, a son of Daniel and Mrs. Jennet Gordon 
was born in Newent, Lisbon, August, 1765; graduate D. C. 1786; 
studied medicine with Dr. Elisha Perkins, of Plainfield, and married 
Priscilla Pierce. He was a successful physician in Plainfield, and 
after some ten years he was married and removed to Granville, 
N. Y. He is still remembered by the oldest people, but the time 
and place of his death have not been ascertained. 



53 

Hon. John Lovett was born in Newent, Lisbon, February 20, 
1761 ; graduate Y. C. 1782; died at Fort Meigs, Ohio, 1818. He 
was a lawyer of distinction in Albany, X. Y., and a Member of 
Congress 1813-17. By his wife Xancy, daughter of Samuel Mc- 
Clellan, of Woodstock, he was the father of eight children. His 
oldest son, John Erskine Lovett, graduate Y. C. 1814, died 1847, 
was also a lawyer in Albany. The Hon. John, first of the above, 
was the oldest son of Captain Samuel Lovett, born October 
14, 1735, died August 1, 1831, and of his first wife, Abigail Sprague, 
of Lebanon, married April 20, 1758, died 6th of March, 1761, aged 
twenty years. This Samuel Lovett married the second time, June 
30, 1763, Charity Perkins, daughter of Jabez Perkins, Jr., of 
Newent, Lisbon. The Lovetts of Lisbon were descendants of his. 



Rev. Ebenezer Werks Robinson, son of Ralph Robinson, of 
Granville, X. Y., preached in Hanover, Lisbon, from 1849 to 1852. 
He died in Washington, D. C, April, 1869. At his suggestion 
the action was taken which resulted in the celebration at Xorwich 
in June, 1859, of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 
general association of Connecticut ; one result of which, especially 
due to his own industry, is seen in the valuable work published in 
1861 under direction of that body, entitled "Contributions to the 
Ecclesiastical Historv of Connecticut." 



Dr. Jonathan Knight, born in Newent, Lisbon, 1758; after 
studying medicine, was a surgeon 1777 and 1780 in the Con- 
tinental Army, and afterwards settled in Xorwalk, Conn. David 
Knight, one of the early occupants of Lisbon, who married in Xor- 
wich, March 17, 1692, Sarah, a daughter of Stephen and Mrs. 
Sarah (Spencer) Backus, was a grandparent of the above Dr. 
Jonathan. A son of Dr. Jonathan Knight was Jonathan Knight, 
Jr., M.D., graduate Y. C. 1808, an eminent physician and dis- 
tinguished professor in Yale College, and was made President of 
the American Medical Society. He was born September 4, 1789; 
died August 25, 1864. 



Rev. Caleb Knight, born in Hanover, Lisbon, October 30, 1771, 
graduate W. C. 1800; died October 25, 1854; was probably a 
grandson of a Benjamin, born in Newent 1730, and removed when 
very young with his parents to Monson, Mass. He studied theology 
with the Rev. Charles Backus, D.D., and was ordained in Hinsdale, 
Mass., April, 1802. His last years were passed in Hatfield, Mass. 
A Benjamin Knight died in Hanover, Lisbon, April 14, 1772, aged 
sixtv-four vears. 



54 

Temperance Bishop was born at Newent, Lisbon, 1733, the 
daughter of John and his second wife, Mrs. Temperance Lathrop 
Bishop. She married, November 12, 1761, Daniel Holmes, then a 
physician at Woodstock, Conn. He died in 1788. Dr. Holmes 
served during the war between England and France (1756), and 
subsequently was in command of a company and served through 
several campaigns in Canada. During the American war for In- 
dependence he was a surgeon in the Continental Army. His second 
wife, Temperance Bishop, was, according to manifold testimony, a 
lady of noble bearing and surpassing excellence and loveliness. 
Their oldest child was David Holmes, born 1762. Their second 
child was Rev. Abiel Holmes, D.D., LL.D., born December 24, 
1763. He died June 4, 1837. He graduated Y. C. 1783, and was 
ordained at New Haven September 15, 1785. Pastor at Med way, 
1785-91. A portion of that time in office as tutor in Yale College 
and pastor in Cambridge, Mass., in 1792- 1832. Among his numer- 
ous published writings are "American Annals," two volumes, of 
which the first edition appeared in 1805. He married, first, Mary, 
the daughter of Rev. Ezra Stiles, D.D., LL.D., President of Yale 
College, by which marriage there were no children. He married, 
second, Sarah, the daughter of Hon. Oliver Wendell, of Boston, 
by which marriage there were five children born : Mary Jackson, 
wife of Usher Parsons, M.D., of Providence, R. I. ; Ann Susan, 
wife of Hon. and Rev. Charles W. Upham, a pastor in Salem, Mass., 
a mayor of that city and a Member of Congress ; a daughter, who 
died early; Oliver Wendell Holmes, M.D., a medical professor, dis- 
tinguished also as a poet and an author, and a John, who was also 
a doctor and a lawver. 



Rev. Stenhen Tracy was born in Newent, Lisbon, 1749, graduate 
C. N. J. 1770; died 1822. He was a son of Jeremiah Tracy, Jr., 
and of his first wife, Mrs. Abigail (Story) Tracy. He was first 
pastor of the church in Peru, Mass., 1772-76, and was the first pastor 
of the church of Norwich, Mass., now Huntington, Mass., from 
May, 1 78 1, to June, 1799. 



Eleazer Jewett was born in Newent, Lisbon, August 31, 1731, 
and died in Jewett City, Griswold, December 7, 18 17. He removed 
early in 1771 from Newent to Preston, now Griswold, and settled 
on the Pachaug River near its entrance into the Quinabaug. He 
erected there a grist mill and later a saw mill, and by selling land 
at reasonable rates drew other persons to his vicinity, and from 
this beginning arose gradually around him a village thriving with 
manufacturing and mechanical enterprises, which was called Jewett 
City. 

The headstone at his grave in Jewett City states: "In April, 
1771, be began the settlement of this village, and from his perse- 



55 

vering industry and active benevolence it has derived its present 
importance." 

Mr. Jevvett was twice married. His first wife was Sarah Farn- 
ham, who died May 4, 1798. His second wife, Elizabeth Gallup, 
died February 16, 1822. (Of his children, Thomas married in Lisbon, 
February 3, 1785, Prudence Rood; Sarah married Col. Constant 
Murdock, of Norwich, Vt. ; a daughter married John Wilson, and 
the fifth child, Joseph Jewett, married, March 4, 1790, Betsy King). 
The children of Joseph and Betsy (King) Jewett were as follows: 
Betsy, born November 20, 1790; Sally, born December 25, 1792; 
Lydia, born December 26, 1794: Ann, born October 19, 1796; 
Eleazer, born January 11, 1799; Henry, born April 2, 1801 ; Joseph 




JOSEPH JEWETT HOME, LISBON. 

R., born December 18, 1802; Thomas M., born September 30, 1804, 
and Charles, born September 5, 1807. The last was the well-known 
temperance lecturer and advocate, a full account of whose life can be 
found in W. M. Thayer's book entitled "Life and Recollections of 
Charles Jewett." We are kindly permitted to print his photograph 
and his old homestead. 



Elizabeth Clement, a daughter of Jeremiah and Mary Mosely 
Clement, married, in Newent, Lisbon, December 15, 1776, David 
Breed, of Norwich, and after his death she became the second wife of 




DR. CHAS. JEWETT. 



57 

Rev. Aaron Cleaveland. Their daughter, Abiah Hyde Cleaveland, 
became the first wife of Rev. Samuel H. Cox, D.D., LL.D., and the 
mother of Right Rev. Arthur Cleaveland Cox, D.D., Bishop of the 
Protestant Episcopal Diocese of Western New York. 



Eunice, the oldest daughter of Rev. Andree Lee, D.D., and his 
wife, Eunice Hall Lee, was born in Hanover, Lisbon, October 26, 
1769, and married, January 21, 1796, Rev. Asa Witter, born in 
Preston, 1766. The earliest known persons by that name were at 
Lynn. Mass., in 1650: Ebenezer Witter, of Preston, born 1668, mar- 
ried May 5, 1693, Dorothy Morgan, a sister of Rev. Joseph Morgan, 
who was pastor of two churches in Greenwich and whose sister, 
Mary, was wife of the eldest Deacon, Joseph Perkins, of Lisbon. 



Rev. Asa Witter, graduate Y. C. 1793: died 1833; was pastor 
of a church in Wilbraham, Mass., from 1797 to 1814. He removed 
to Canandaigua, X. Y., 181 5, and subsequently to Winchester, 
Tenn., where he died. His oldest child, John, graduate Y. C. 1812, 
was a tutor in 18 15- 17 and a practitioner of medicine in Texas, 
where in 1858 he died. 



Rev. Timothy Allen was born in Norwich, Lisbon, August 31, 
l 7 [ ?'- graduate Y. C. 1736; died in Chesterfield, Mass., January 
12, 1806. He was pastor of a church in West Haven, and at 
Orange 1738-42, and of the first church of Ashford from 1757-64, 
and that of Chesterfield, Mass., 1785-96. He preached sometimes in 
Granville, Mass. He was, with his father, a founder of the church 
in Norwich, and became a prominent leader among the so-called 
"New Lights." After he had been dismissed from his church at 
West Haven, he was in New London in 1743 at the head of what 
was styled "The Shepherd's Tent," which was instituted to teach 
exhorters and ministers and train them for their work. Dr. Trum- 
bull represents him as "A man of talents and strict morals and as 
earnest and effective in preaching." He married, first, Mary Bishop, 
and his second wife was Dorothy Gallup, a widow of John Read. 
His grandson. Rev. Jacob Allen, born August 18, 1781, in Preston, 
was an earnest and instructive preacher. 



Clarissa Huntington, born in Hanover, Lisbon, May 3, 1791, 
eldest daughter of Deacon Barnabas (Perkins) Huntington, mar- 
ried Martin Bottom ; they had a son, Martin, born December 2, 
1810. She married a second time, on April 20, 1820, Dr. Rufus 
Smith, a physician of Griswold, and afterwards in Hanover, who. 



58 

from 1838 to 1845, was also pastor of the church in Easthampton. 
One of their children, Rufns, born September 17, 1821, graduate Y. 
C. 1846 and died 1847. 



Dr. Walter Burnham, a son of Capt. Benjamin and of Airs. 
Jemima ( Perkins ) Burnham, was born at Newent, Lisbon, Feb- 
ruary, 1762, and died September 6, 1834. He practised medicine 
in Brookfield, \'t. He married, first, in 1792, Submit Smith, of 
Northfield, Mass., who died June 26, 1826, and he married again 
in April, 1829, a widow Peck. He had two sons, of which the elder, 
Zebulon Burnham, M.D., born 1796, died 1861, was a physician of 
good repute. The younger son, Walter Burnham, M.D., born 1808, 
was a resident of Lowell, Mass., Professor of Surgery in the Wor- 
cester Medical Institute, 1850-60, and a surgeon in the Sixth Massa- 
chusetts Regiment of the U. S. V. A. from 1862 to 1863. 

A brother of Dr. Walter Burnham, Sr., was Zebulon Perkins 
Burnham, born 1766; died 1810; a prominent shipmaster and mer- 
chant of Norwich. 



Josiah Read deserves mention as being probably the earliest 
white settler in what was then called the crotch of the rivers She- 
tucket and Quinabaug, later known as Newent and now Lisbon. 
This was in 1687. He died July 3, 1717. The estate of said Josiah 
Read, in Lisbon, has from his death till this time been in the pos- 
session of his descendants. 



Jerusha Perkins, born September 1, 171 1, a daughter of Deacon 
Joseph and Mrs. Martha Morgan Perkins, of Norwich, Lisbon, 
married July 17, 1733. Rev. Jedediah Hyde, who died 1761. He 
was pastor of a Separatist church at "Bean Hill," Norwich, from 
1747 to 1757. 



Rev. Horace Bushnell, born in Hanover, Lisbon. November 
20, 1802, was the youngest but one of the eleven children of Mr. 
Jason and Mrs. Hannah (Kirkland) Bushnell. The earliest Bush- 
nells in this country were at Salem, Mass., 1637-39. Horace Bush- 
nell united with the Congregational church at Rome, N. Y., in 1826, 
was a student of the Oneida Co. Institute 1826-30, and was for 
two years a teacher in the class department of Lane Seminary, 
Ohio. He received license to preach at Cincinnati October 14, 183 1. 
He gathered the Storrs Congregational church in that city in 1832 
and labored there for a long time. He married, at Hanover, Lisbon, 
June 17, 1832, Caroline Hastings. Their only son, Horace, Jr., 
was educated at Farmer's College, Ohio, 1859, and at Lane Seminary, 
1862, and was pastor at a church in Southport, Ind., afterwards. 



59 

Louisa Kirkland Bushnell, born in Hanover, Lisbon, in 1791, 
was a sister of Rev. Horace Bushnell. She married Agrippa S. 
Martin, of New Jersey. Their son, Rev. Charles Finney Martin, 
was for some years a missionary of the A. M. S. to the Copts in 
Egypt in 1859; afterwards became pastor of a church in Peru, 111., 
and in the service of the Christian Commission, at Xashville, Tenn., 
and died there during the War of the Rebellion. 



William Fitch Bushnell, a brother of Rev. Horace Bushnell, 
married, in Hanover, Lisbon, April 3, 181 5, Jane Corning Parish. 
1 te was born in Lisbon 1794. They removed soon after marriage to 
Rome, X. Y. Their oldest son, Andrew Lee Bushnell, M.D., was a 
physician in Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Their second son, Albert Bushnell, born 1818, studied at Ober- 
lin. Ohio; graduated at Lane Seminary 1843, and soon joined the 
Gaboon Mission of the A. B. C. F. M. in Western Africa, where 
he had a Ions: service. 



Rev. Xathan Lynde Lord, M.D., born December 8, 1821, grad- 
uate W. R. C. O. 1847; cuec l m New York, January 23, 1868. He 
pursued his studies in the theological department of the W. R. 
College and was ordained in Hudson, Ohio, October 12, 1852. He 
was in 1853-60 at Oodoopitty, Ceylon, and 1863-7 — having studied 
medicine while on a visit to America — was at Madua, East India, 
a missionary and physician of the A. B. C. F. M. He married, 
at Stowe, Vt., August 11, 1850, Laura Weld Delano. 



Rev. Amos Read, youngest child of Joseph and Mrs. Thankful 
(Andrew) Read, was born in Xewent, Lisbon, March 25, 1756, and 
died in Lisbon, Xovember 2, 1838. He was, as a minister of the 
Baptist denomination, employed by churches in the vicinity of 
his homestead. He married, first, July 9, 1778, at Scituate, R. I., 
Mary Bennett, who died January 11, 1831 : he married, second, in 
Lisbon, June 28, 1831, Amelia Wales Palmer, who died January 24, 
1 S47. Of the eleven children of Amos Read were Lydia, born July 

2"j, 1790, who married Rev. Oliver Tuttle ; [■ ] Caleb Read, a son, 

born Lisbon, Xovember 24, 1780, who became a minister of the Bap- 
tist denomination and a resident in Brookfield X. Y..and in Cermania, 
X. V., 1805 to 1809, and in Lisbon in 1 810 to 181 6, and later in Col- 
chester and in Griswold. He married, in Montville, September 6, 
1804, Mary Leffingwell, and their son Caleb was a Baptist minister. 
as also their son Hiram, who was a missionary in Xew Mexico. Rev. 
Levi Read, third son of Rev. Amos Read, was born in Xewent. 
Lisbon, March 16, 1783. and died there January 21, 1872; he mar- 



6o 



ried in Brookfield, N. Y., 1817, Elley Potter. Of his children 
are Charles B. Read, a Baptist minister, and a Daniel Read, L.L.D., 
who has been a president of Shurtleff College and has lived at Law- 
rence, Kan. Rev. James Read, son of Rev. Amos Read, was born 
in Lisbon, September 8, 1793, and has been a Baptist minister. 



David, son of Deacon Andrew Tracy, married, in Newent, Lis- 
bon, March 20, 1806, Sally Gorton. Their son, Rev. William Tracy, 
D.D., born in Norwich, June 2, 1807, studied at Andover, Mass., and 
at Princeton, N. J. ; has been since 1836 a missionary of the A. B. C. 
F. M., at Madura, East Indies, to 1872, and then at Timpavanum, 
and there he died in November, 1877. 



Albert L. Tracy, oldest son of Deacon Freeman Tracy, of 
Newent, Lisbon, and only child of Mrs. Charity Lathrop, his first 
wife, married, in Griswold, March 10, 1825, Harriet Burch. Their 
son. Rev. Thomas Tracy, was a graduate Hanover College, Ind., 
1864, and of the Theological Seminary at Princeton, N. J., in 1867. 
Has since 1868 been a missionary of the Presbyterian Board of 
Missions in Northern India. 



Hon. William Bishop, of Rochester, N. Y., was born in Lisbon, 
1803 ; a son of Capt. Samuel Bishop and of his wife, Mrs. Lucy 
(Lord) Bishop. He has a son, a clergyman, George Sayles Bishop, 
D.D., graduate A. C. 1858, who has been a pastor in Newburgh, 
N. Y., and now has been pastor for more than a score of years 
at East Orange, N. J. He has served as Moderator of the Organ- 
ized Synod of that locality. He was chosen "Vedder Lecturer" 
before the college and seminary of New Brunswick in 1884, and 
has been three times a delegate to the Pan-Presbyterian Council. 
Of his two sons, one, Rev. William S. Bishop, is curate at St. John's 
Chapel, New York, a graduate of Rutgers College and of the 
General Theological Seminary, New York. Another son, a grad- 
uate of Princeton, N. J., is a teacher in New York City. 



Rev. William Hyde was born in Griswold, June 25, 1805. 
His parents moved to Lisbon with him soon after his birth. He 
was a son of Joel Hyde and his wife, Mary (Belcher) Hyde. He 
graduated A. C. 1829, studied theology at Andover Seminary 1829- 
32, and was ordained pastor of a church at Yorktown, N. Y., 
June 2, 1833. Then pastor of a church at Westbrook, June 28, 1838, 
till 1854. In 1864 acting pastor at Lynne till his death, December 



6i 

19, 1874. He married Martha Belcher and had eight children. The 
third child, ]oel Wilbur Hyde, born March 20, 1839, received from 
Y. C. 1 86 1 the degree of M.D. 



Sarah Benedict, oldest daughter of Joel Benedict, D.D., and his 
wife, Mrs. Sarah (McKown) Benedict, was born in Newent, Lisbon, 
August 28, 1774. She married, July 4. 1796, Rev. Eliphalet Nott, 
D.D., LL.D., who was born at Ashford, June 25, 1773, and died 
January 29, 1866. He studied theology with Rev. Dr. Benedict 
( lie fore mentioned) ; was a Presbyterian pastor at Cherry Valley, 
X. Y., and in Albany, X. Y., and from 1804 till his decease Presi- 
dent of Union College. Of their four children, one, Hon. Joel B. 
Nott, of Guilderland, X. Y., graduate U. C. 1817, was the father 
of Hon. Charles Cooper Xott, of Washington, D. C, who graduated 
U. C. 1848, and was a Justice of the U. S. Court of Claims ; and 
another son was Rev. John Xott, D.D.. of Fonda, N. Y. The 
youngest son, Hon. Benjamin Xott, graduate U. C. 1823, lived in 
Albany, X. Y. 

The only daughter of Eliphalet Xott was Sarah Maria, who died 
in 1839. She had married, April, 1824, Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, 
D.D., LL.D., who graduated U. C. 1818, and died 1865. He was 
professor in U. C. from 183 1 to 1845, an d afterwards a Bishop 
of the Pennsylvania Diocese of the P. E. church. He married, 
second, Sarah, a daughter of Robert Benedict, born in Lisbon July 
n, 1776, and who has resided at Richfield Springs, N. Y. A record, 
speaking of the ten children of Bishop Alonzo Potter and Mrs. 
Sarah Maria (Nott) Potter, about twenty years ago, when they 
were all living, speaks of Hon. Clarkson Xott Potter, of X T ew York, 
graduate U. C. 1842, a lawyer and a Member of Congress from 
1869 to 1875 ; also Howard Potter, of Xew York, graduate U. C. 
1846, a member of the Xew York State Board of Commissioners 
of Charities: and Robert Brown Potter, of Xewport, R. I., Major 
General of U. S. V. A., Ninth Army Corps, and Edward Tuckerman 
Potter, of Xew York City, who graduated U. C. 1853, and Rev. 
Henry Codman Potter, D.D., Bishop of Xew York City, and Rev. 
Eliphalet Xott Potter, D.D., graduate U. C. 1861, President of Union 
College, and William Appleton Potter, of New York, graduate I'. 
C. 1864. 

Rev. Philo Judson, born in Woodbury, January 14, 1784; died 
in Hartford, March 11, 1874, having studied theology under Rev. 
Azel Backus, he was pastor of the first church in Ashford from 
181 1 to 1833, and pastor of the second church in Hanover, Lisbon, 
from June, 1833, to July, 1834. and of the church in Willimantic 
from 1834 to 1839, and acting pastor of first church in Middle 
Haddam in 1846 to 1847, an< ^ from 1848 and onward he resided at 
Rocky Hill ; he was much engaged in revival work ; he possessed 
a fervent, earnest spirit. 



62 

Samuel Coit Morgan, graduate Y. C. 1812, was a son of Capt. 
Elisha and Mrs. Olive (Coit) Morgan; was born in Lisbon, August, 
1789; died in Norwich September 11, 1876. He was a lawyer, 
residing, in 1816 to 1842, in Jewett City, and afterwards a resident 
in Norwich ; was President of the Quinabaug Bank from 1842 to 
i860. He married, September 1, 1816, Maria B., daughter of Rev. 
Edward Porter, of Farmington. Married, second, November 26, 
1849, Frances A., daughter of Gen. Moses Cleveland, of Canterbury, 
and third married, June 12, 1861, Mary Cook, daughter of Dr. John 
C. Tibbets. He had no children. At his death he bequeathed con- 
siderable sums to various benevolent societies. 



Joshua Bishop.- — A short but influential life sometimes out- 
reaches in wide results one of length of days. Joshua Bishop, 
son of Capt. Reuben and Abigail Bishop, born April 19, 1814; with 
hardly an average common-school education, when about twenty 
years old, found himself located in New York City. Through social 
acquaintance and church connection, he came in contact with those 
philanthropists and pioneer Abolitionists, Lewis and Arthur Tappan, 
and as they in New York, so did he in Lisbon circulate the anti- 
slavery literature of that period, which made lifelong Abolitionists 
of thousands of those who lived to rejoice when emancipation was 
accomplished by the pen of President Lincoln. 

This same young man, who had but a little over half a dozen 
years of active life left for him to live, made the acquaintance of 
Dr. John Burdell, a prominent and eminent dentist, who influenced 
him to study for the profession of dentistry. At this time the text 
books on dentistry were mostly in French and German. He, with re- 
markable insight, foresaw, as he studied the great importance of this 
profession to the human race, its possibilities and the aptitude of 
the Americans to take the lead in its future development and make 
it, as they have, essentially an American profession. Not a large 
city in the world to-day but has its American dentist honored abroad, 
as at home. The profession of dentistry has the credit of discovering 
anaesthetics, that invaluable boon to suffering mankind. Mr. Chip- 
man, in searching the records of Lisbon's professional men, reports 
four dentists. This Joshua Bishop, who was undeniably the first 
to enter the profession from Lisbon, and who practiced in New York 
City and in the West Indies, was influential in having at least five 
followers from Lisbon, three of whom were his own brothers. 



63 




CAPTAIN BURNHAM S INN 

This old stage tavern or inn, was kept for a long time by Capt. Benj. Burn ham, 
who built the present house on an old tavern site. It was kept later by Capt. Reuben. 
Bishop, father of the author, whose boyhood days were spent there; it was a tavern 
where the stage line between Boston and New York changed its horses. It was, at the 
time of the cholera scare in "32 and '33, a busy place, where daily three stages in each 
direction drew up their foaming, panting horses upon the front green, the post-horn's 
mellow tones having heralded their arrival. 



Historians of our Revolutionary Strife are on record as saying, "On 
Saturday, September 3d, during the earlier struggle in the Revolutionary 
war. at 4 o'clock, P. M., an express arrived at Norwich from Col. Israel 
Putnam (whose home was not many miles from that locality) that Boston 
had been attacked the night before and six of the citizens killed. This was 
but a rumor, but it caused the greatest consternation. 

The citizens of Norwich assembled about their liberty tree, then ad- 
journed to the Court House and resolved to dispatch an express to Provi- 
dence to learn the truth of the report. 

David Nevins volunteered on this service, as he had on many similar 
occasion-, and departed at eight o'clock P. M. On Sunday morning 464 
men. well equipped, and the greater part mounted on good horses, had 
already started for Boston, under command of Maj. John Durkee, and ren- 
dezvoused at Capt. Burnham's Inn.' seven miles from Norwich Court House, 
where they, at eleven o'clock A. M., were met by the return of Mr. Nevins 
with information that the report was not true, whereupon they dispersed." 



CHAPTER V. 



Having thus recorded a long list of the many distinguished 
persons of Lisbon, the writer feels sure he has omitted many others 
equally deserving of notice, which should find place in Lisbon's 
history ; but it is quite impossible to get full and reliable records of 
prominent men who have left Lisbon for other fields of activity. 
There are over thirty persons whose names are on record as grad- 
uates of Yale College from Lisbon. Then Union College, N. Y., 
Harvard, Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Western 
Reserve and Oberlin Colleges, who have also had Lisbon boys to 
educate. 



In a list of ministers originating in Lisbon, Rev. Air. Chipman 
gave the names of thirty-three who had become ministers up to T873. 
There are doubtless many more than this number. They have been 
distributed among the several denominations and some of them 
have become missionaries to other countries. 



In a list of doctors or physicians, Rev. Mr. Chipman records 
the names of forty-one, who up to the time of his report — 1873 — 
were in or from Lisbon. 



LIST OF SOLDIERS 



Inhabitants or natives of Lisbon, who served in the "Continen- 
tal Army" during the War of the Revolution, were: 

Bartlett Bingham, died 1777. 
Lemuel Bingham, died 1776. 
Elijah Bishop, died 1776. 
Reuben Bishop, died 1775. 
Darius Bottom, died 1775. 
Amos Brewster, died 1777. 
Ephraim Durfy, died 1777. 
Daniel Fitch, died 
Capt. Ziba Hunt, died 
Adonijah Kingsley, died 1777. 



65 

Lieut. Nathaniel Kirkland, killed October 12, 1777. 

Dr. Jonathan Knight (a surgeon). 

Dr. Abijah Perkins (a surgeon), died August 31, 1782. 

Capt. Ebenezer Perkins. 

Capt. Jacob Perkins, Jr. 

Capt. Joseph Perkins, Jr. 

Lieut. Simon Perkins, killed September 3, 1778. 

Rev. Andrew Lee (Chaplain). 

Capt. Samuel Lovett. 

Rev. Peter Powers, died 1776. 

Daniel Preston. 

Asa Rathbun. 

Capt. Moses Stevens. 

Ensign Andrew Tracy. 

Capt. Ames Walbridge. 

George Whitchell, died 1777. 

The above dates of death ante-date the close of the struggle. 
Reuben Bishop, the writer's great-grandfather, died in the cam- 
paign of Arnold towards Quebec, which was before the Declaration 
of Independence. The list above of those serving in the War of the 
Revolution is by no means a full one of those from Lisbon's territorv. 



Soldiers from Lisbon who served in the war with England, 
1812 to 1815 : 

Capt. Freeman Tracy, of Newent, and Capt. Charles Perkins, 
of Hanover, were, with their respective companies, in active service 
at Stonington, Xew London, and vicinity when Stonington was 
assaulted by a British force in 181 2. In said companies are said 
to have been the persons below named : 

Asa Witter Allen, who removed to Salem, Ohio, from Lisbon. 
Evander Fuller, who died September 18, 1873. 
Josiah Kean (Kaine?). 
Zephaniah Simpson. 
Simon Lathrop, etc. 

During this war of three years, which was mostly a warfare 
of naval attacks upon our coast, the military companies were fre- 
quently called upon to come to the defence of the coast along New 
London Count}". Lisbon several times marched her companies to 
the points of dang;er. Capt. Roswell Adams, with his company, 
had this experience, as well as Capt. Tracy and Capt. Perkins. 
Reuben Bishop, afterwards made a Captain of a Lisbon company, 
was there, and often related his experience to his children, of whom 
the writer was one. There were three companies marched from Lis- 
bon whose officers and men must have enrolled more than one hun- 
dred men in this service. 



66 

A list of seamen, natives of Lisbon, who were engaged in the 
Revolutionary War : 

Capt. Oliver Arnold, brother of the traitor Benedict Arnold. 

Oliver Arnold, Jr. Adonijah Knight. 

Capt. Ezra Bishop. Capt. Elisha Lathrop. 

David Bottom. Capt. Robert McKown. 

Aaron Burnham. Jacob Perkins. 

Capt. Zebulon Perkins Burnham. Samuel Perkins. 

Comfort Eames. Capt. Zebulon Perkins. 

Cyrus Eames. Thomas Todd. 

Gideon Eames. James W. Watson. 

Capt. Rufus Eames. Asa Williams. 

LIST OE SOLDIERS FURNISHED BY LISBON IN THE 
WAR OF THE REBELLION : 

Patrick Sullivan, First Connecticut Regiment. 

John W. Cutler, Second Connecticut Regiment. 

John H. Wilcox, Second Connecticut Regiment. 

"Eugene Branch, Second Connecticut Regiment. 

Charles H. Corey, Fifth Connecticut Regiment. 

William D. Spicer, Fifth Connecticut Regiment. 

Henry D. Frisby, Sixth Connecticut Regiment. 

John Sullivan, Seventh Connecticut Regiment. 

lohn Carroll, Eighth Connecticut Regiment. 

Ezra N. Barber, Eleventh Connecticut Regiment. 

George Snow, Twelfth Connecticut Regiment. 

Gilbert A. Davis, Twelfth Connecticut Regiment. 

Elijah I. Green, Twelfth Connecticut Regiment. 

John Black, Twelfth Connecticut Regiment. 

William J. Morehead, Fourteenth Connecticut Regiment. 

Henry A. Bingham, Eighteenth Connecticut Regiment. 

Eli Jackson, Twenty-first Connecticut Regiment. 

Austin Fitzgerald, Twenty-first Connecticut Regiment. 

Asa Belknap, Twenty-first Connecticut Regiment. 

Andrew J. Willett, Twenty-sixth Connecticut Regiment. 

Elisha N. Green, Twenty-sixth Connecticut Regiment. 

Caleb T. Bishop, Twenty-sixth Connecticut Regiment. 

George A. Haskell, Twenty-sixth Connecticut Regiment. 

Amos Palmer, Twenty-sixth Connecticut Regiment. 

Horace A. Palmer, Twenty-sixth Connecticut Regiment. 

William A. Palmer, Twenty-sixth Connecticut Regiment. 

Albert M. Rathbun, Twenty-sixth Connecticut Regiment. 

Henry West, Twenty-ninth Connecticut Regiment. 

William Wilson, Twenty-ninth Connecticut Regiment. 

William H. Boyer, Twenty-ninth Connecticut Regiment. 

Cyrus York, Twenty-ninth Connecticut Regiment. 

Peter Brooker, Twenty-ninth Connecticut Regiment. 

Isaac Wilson, Thirtieth Connecticut Regiment. 

The regimental rolls show a very much larger number of en- 
listed men in this war. 



67 

CENSUS RETURNS. 

In 1774, twelve years before Norwich was divided, there were 
in Newent Parish ninety-two dwelling houses, ninety-eight families, 
and six hundred and forty-one persons. In Hanover Parish forty- 
four houses, fifty-three families, and three hundred and twenty -three 
persons. Total of inhabitants in both the parishes then, nine hun- 
dred and sixty-four. While these parishes remained together as 
parts of Lisbon, their population was returned by the Census 
Bureau, in 

1800 1,158 i860 1,262 

1810 1,128 1870 502 

1830 1,161 1880 630 

1840 1,052 1890 548 

1850 938 1900 697 



CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS. 

Of Constitutional State Conventions Connecticut has convened 
but three, viz., 1788, 1818, 1902. The first was called to ratify the 
Constitution of the United States in 1788. Rev. Andrew Lee was 
chosen and sent as a Delegate from Lisbon. The second, called in 
1 818, was to form a State Constitution for Connecticut. Daniel 
Braman was sent as a Delegate from Lisbon. The third, called in 
1902, was for consideration of proposed changes to the State Con- 
stitution, wherein measures were discussed still undecided. Calvin 
Duane Bromlev was chosen as Deleg-ate from Lisbon. 



LISBON'S LEGISLATORS. 



Members of the State Senate of Connecticut. (The first named 
was an early resident, the others were natives of Lisbon) : 

Ashur Palmer Brown, Ethan Allen, 

Calvin Barstow Bromley, Jeremiah Kinsman Adams, 

Thomas Clark. 



Members of Congress, natives of Lisbon : 
Elias Perkins, John Lovett, Joseph Kirkland. 



Representatives from Lisbon in the Connecticut Legislature, 

those included who, before Lisbon was incorporated, pertained to 
the Newent, Lisbon, part of Norwich : 

May Session. October Session. 

1720 — Jabez Perkins. 

1722 — Jabez Perkins. Jabez Perkins. 
1723 — Jabez Perkins. 



68 



May Session. 

728— 

757— 
758- 

768 — Elisha Lathrop. 
782 — Samuel Lovett. 
783 — Elisha Lathrop. 
784 — Elisha Lathrop. 
785 — Elisha Lathrop. 
786 — Elisha Lathrop. 
787 — Elisha Lathrop. 
788 — John Perkins. 
789 — Jacob Perkins. 
790 — Ezra Bishop. 
791 — John Perkins. 
792 — Samuel Lovett. 
793 — Samuel Lovett. 
794 — Samuel Lovett. 
795 — Samuel Lovett. 
796 — Levi Perkins. 
797 — Levi Perkins. 
798 — John Kinsman. 
799 — John Kinsman. 
800 — Luther Manning. 
801 — Joshua Perkins. 
802 — Ezra Bishop. 
803 — David Hale. 
804 — Joshua Perkins. 
805 — Daniel Braman. 
806 — Barnabas Huntington. 
807 — Daniel Braman. 
808— Levi Perkins. 
809 — William Adams. 
810 — Levi Perkins. 
811 — William Adams. 
812 — Levi Perkins. 
813 — Freeman Tracy. 
814 — Levi Perkins. 
815 — Freeman Tracy. 
816 — Levi Perkins. 
817 — Freeman Tracy. 
818 — Frederick Perkins. 



October Session. 

Jabez Perkins. 
John Perkins. 
John Perkins. 

Elisha Lathrop. 
Elisha Lathrop. 
Elisha Lathrop. 
Elisha Lathrop. 
Elisha Lathrop. 
John Perkins. 
Jacob Perkins. 
Joshua Perkins. 
Ezra Bishop. 
Ezra Bishop. 
Samuel Lovett. 
Samuel Lovett. 
Elisha Morgan. 
Levi Perkins. 
Levi Perkins. 
John Kinsman. 
Luther Manning. 
Luther Manning. 
Samuel Lovett. 
Joshua Perkins. 
Joshua Perkins. 
Septimius Lathrop. 
Joshua Perkins. 
Daniel Braman. 
Barnabas Huntington. 
Daniel Braman. 
Levi Perkins. 

Levi Perkins. 
William Adams. 
Levi Perkins. 
Freeman Tracy. 
Levi Perkins. 
Freeman Tracy. 
Levi Perkins. 
Frederick Perkins. 
Joseph L. Lyon. 



Since 1818, under the new Constitution, there has been held 
one session a vear. 



819 — Thomas Kinsman. 
820 — Joseph Jewett. 
821 — Tvler Brown. 



1822 — Tvler Brown. 
1823 — Joseph L. Lyon. 
1824 — Andrew Clark. 



69 



1825 — Samuel Peckham. 
1826— Barzillai Bishop. 
1827 — Elisha Morgan. 
1828 — Roswell Adams. 
1829 — John Gray. 
1830 — John Gray. 
1831 — Jared Farnham. 
1832 — Bucklin Mathewson. 
1833 — Bucklin Mathewson. 
1834 — Ebenezer Allen. 
1835 — James Stetson. 
1836 — Nathan Brewster. 
1837 — Thomas A. Clark. 
1838 — Russell Rose. 
1839 — Daniel F. Cutler. 
1840 — Thomas G. Read. 
1 84 1 — Thomas A. Clark. 
1842 — Perley B. Fuller. 
1843 — Vine Smith. 
1844 — Henry R. Robbins. 
184s — Thomas M. [ewett. 
1846— William C. Cutler. 
1847 — Edwin Kimball. 
1848— Elijah Rathbun, Jr. 
1849 — Ebenezer Lyon. 
1850 — xA.sher P. Brown. 
185 1 — Daniel M. Brown. 
1852 — William C. Cutler. 
1853— Ezekiel Bromley. 
1854 — Sanford Bromley. 
1855 — Edwin Fitch. 
1856 — Asher P. Brown. 
1857 — Norman Smith. 
1858 — Thomas A. Clark. 
1859 — Jacob B. Bachelder. 
i860— Nathan P. Bishop. 



1861 — Isaac S. Geer. 
1862 — George L. Haskell. 
1863 — Eleazer Bushnell. 
1864— Willard Bliss. 
1865 — Henry Lyon. 
1866 — Henry A. Bennett. 
1867 — George N. Carr. 
1868— G. B. Hull. 
1869 — Sanford Bromley. 
1870 — George L. Phillips. 
1871 — Russel Whiting Fitch. 
1872 — Henry Lyon. 
1873 — Jonathan Lester Lathrop. 
1874 — Henry G. Palmer. 
1875 — James B. Palmer. 
1876 — James B. Palmer. 
1877 — Edwin Kimball. 
1878— John F. Hewett. 
1879 — Edwin F. Appley. 
1880 — Charles J. Bromley. 
1 88 1 — George Robinson. 
1882 — Augustus F. Read. 
1883— Thomas McCarthy. 
1884— Edward C. Hyde. 
1885— John D. O'Sullivan. 
1886— Charles G. Fitch. 
1887-88 — Cornelius Murphy. 
1889-90 — George G. Young. 
1891-92 — John G. Bromley. 
1893-94 — John G. Bromley. 
1895-96 — James E. Roberts. 
1897-1898 — Charles B. Bromley. 
1 899- 1 900 — James B. Palmer. 
1 899- 1 900 — James B. Palmer. 
1901-02 — Frank E. Olds. 
1903-04 — Calvin D. Bromley. 



TOWN CLERKS OF LISBON. 



1786 — John Kinsman. 
1 787- 18 1 5 — Jedediah Burnham. 
1816-28 — Joseph Jewett. 
1829-35 — Thomas Kinsman. 
1836-39 — Henry R. Robbins. 
1840-42 — Sanford Bromley. 
1843-47 — Thomas M. Jewett. 
1848-50 — Sanford Bromley. 
1851-52 — Daniel M. Brown. 



1853 — Levi C. Corning. 
1854-55 — Daniel M. Brown. 
1855-60 — Jacob B. Bachelder. 
1861-69 — Sanford Bromley. 
1870 — John F. Hewitt. 
1871-92 — Henry Lyon. 
1892-93— Frank E. Robinson. 
1893-98 — George G. Bromley. 
1898 — Calvin D. Bromley. 



7o 



Town Orders Showing the Change of Currency from Pounds 
and Shillings to Dollars and Cents. 



* (No. 6<f ) 

Sir, * t 

PAY % / ^ 1 ff/o?f^/ltfs?rt 

or order, $^y, Dollars 

J ^ Cents, out of the 

| -W c^ff- Town tax, made on the 
i lift 4*74 C) and charge the Town. 
I Lifbon^ J/-#r*A 4 m '*** 
% /(/ dollars' ## cents 




^ 




o#?. 



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J 






""***"* Town-Treafurer. 



^'\*^"'---''^'''--S^"^< n *^ 



7i 




i 



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r.^T^i- r^»^=*^ fO. ~+Xd 



6p /in/ ^r^^x^^^*^ c <^ 

^ or order £-/ if ''C&& *'*-* '^S'sft *-&**/ ss&+ 

^ laTvjal 'TJion&u , oidor{li%2 &d*own iacc , mam 
$. oTi tn& lift jjg £i and char ae, the Uowu. 
% £i<s(jon,c^A***^>J? ^j? n9 f 



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| (N0.72. ) 

J Sir 

I PAY J^U~^<* $)****£ 



order, ^^ % y^2^~^~ Dollars 



£ or 

3 OTnnro, out of the 

4 ^8 &^*^ — " — Town tax, made on the 
£ lift r/^f and charge the Town. 

f Lilbon,^^>,^^^^/^t5^ 



/^ dollars z^^ cents 



1 




J 



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CO 



I Tc^^^^^^^^^^Town-Treafurer, 



73 



Tax Collector's Advertisement of 1825. 



NOTICE. 

THE residents and non-resi- 
dents lijbk to pay taxes in the 
.town of Lisbon, arc hereby notified that 
J have received a warrant to collect a 
State Tax of one cent on a dollar, on 
List 1 $24— and will meet them to re- 
eive said tax at the store of Brown A* 
Baldwin, in said Lisbon, (JVewent So- 
cetyj on Wednesday the 28th day of 
December instant, from 1 to 5 o'clock 
P. M. and at the house of Daniel F. Cut- 
ler, in said Lisbon, (Hanover Society) 
on Thursday the 29th day of December 
instant from 1 to 5 o'clock P. M.— 
Those who neglect to pay at that time, 
must expect to pay fees according to 
'aw, BARaTOW BRUMLE? r , 

Collector. 
Lisbon. Dec. 3d, 1825. 3w$6— 



74 

SELECTMEN OF LISBON. 

1786, June 30 — Capt. Joshua Perkins, Capt. Ezra Bishop, Capt. Sam- 
uel Lovett. 

1786, December 18 — Capt. Joshua Perkins, Capt. Ezra Bishop, Capt. 
Samuel Lovett, John Bingham, Capt. Benjamin Burnham. 

1787 — Capt. Joshua Perkins, Ezra Bishop, John Bingham, Benjamin 
Burnham. 

1788 — Ezra Bishop, Capt. Joshua Perkins, Capt. Elisha Morgan. 

1789 — Capt. Ezra Bishop, Capt. Joshua Perkins, Capt. Elisha Mor- 
gan, John Bingham, Jr. 

1790 — Ezra Bishop, Capt. Joshua Perkins, John Bingham. 

1 79 1 — Ezra Bishop, Dr. Luther Manning, John Bingham. 

1792 — John Kinsman, Major Ebenezer Tracy, Capt. Levi Perkins. 

I 793 — Capt. Levi Perkins, Ezra Bishop, Septimius Lathrop. 

1794 — Capt. Levi Perkins, Septimius Lathrop, Capt. Samuel Bishop. 

1795 — Capt. Levi Perkins, Septimius Lathrop, Capt. Samuel Bishop. 

1796 — Barnabas Huntington, William Adams, John Fitch. 

I 797 — Barnabas Huntington, John Fitch, William Adams. 

1798 — John Fitch, William Adams, Frederick Perkins. 

l 799 — Ezra Bishop, Barnabas Huntington, Cyrus Bishop. 

1800 — Ezra Bishop, Barnabas Huntington, Col. Ebenezer Tracy. 

1 80 1 — Ezra Bishop, Barnabas Huntington, Col. Ebenezer Tracv. 

1802 — Barnabas Huntington, Ebenezer Tracy, Daniel Braman. 

1803 — Barnabas Huntington, Daniel Braman, Septimius Lathrop. 

1804 — Barnabas Huntington, Daniel Braman, Septimius Lathrop. 

1805 — Daniel Braman, Capt. John Bingham, William Adams. 

1806 — Daniel Braman, Capt. John Bingham, William Adams. 

1807 — Capt. John Bingham, Barnabas Hyde, Joseph Jewett. 

1808 — Capt. John Bingham, Barnabas Hyde, Joseph Jewett. 

1809 — Joseph Jewett, Barnabas Huntington, Major Freeman Tracv. 

1810 — Barnabas Huntington, Major Freeman Tracy. Thomas Kins- 
man. 

i8tt — Major Freeman Tracy, Thomas Kinsman, Capt. Frederick 
Tracy. 

1812 — Thomas Kinsman, Levi Perkins, Capt. Andrew Clark. 

1813 — Capt. Andrew Clark, Capt. John Bingham, William Adams. 

18 14 — William Adams, Daniel F. Cutler, Jeremiah Tracy. 

181 5 — William Adams, Daniel F. Cutler. Jeremiah Tracy. 

1816 — Jeremiah Tracy, Tyler Brown, Barnabas Huntington. 

1817 — Daniel Braman, Joseph L. Lyon, James Burnham. 

1818 — Daniel Braman, Joseph L. Lyon, James Burnham. 

18 19 — Daniel Braman, Joseph L. Lyon, Lee Hyde. 

1820 — Joseph L. Lyon, James Burnham, Amos Bennett. 

1821 — Joseph L. Lyon, Amos Bennett, Freeman Tracy. 
1822 — Joseph L. Lyon, Amos Bennett, Freeman Tracy. 
1823 — Joseph L. Lyon, Freeman Tracy, Amos Bennett. 
T824 — Freeman Tracy, Nathan Brooks, Russell Rose. 
1825— Nathan Brooks. Russell Rose, Capt. Roswell Adams. 



75 

1826 — Russell Rose, Barzillai Bishop, Barstow Bromley. 
1827 — Barstow Bromley, Joseph L. Lyon, Samuel Peckham. 
1828 — Samuel Peckham, Charles Bushnell, John Gray. 
1829 — Charles Bushnell, John Gray, Russell Rose. 
1830 — Samuel Peckham, Charles Perkins, James Stetson. 
1831 — Samuel Peckham, Charles Perkins, James Stetson. 
1832 — James Stetson, Bishop Burnham, Milton M. Perkins. 
1833 — James Stetson, Bucklin Mathewson, Jared Farnham. 
1834 — Bucklin Mathewson, Adonijah Bushnell, Martin Warren. 
1835 — Vine Smith, Thomas A. Clark, Henry Lathrop. 
183(5 — Thomas A. Clark, William Sisson, Roswell B. Downing. 
1837 — Roswell Adams, Luther Fuller, Daniel B. Lovett. 
1838 — Daniel B. Lovett, Perley B. Fuller, Thomas G. Read. 
1839 — Freeman Tracy, Ebenezer Allen, Joseph B. Hibbard. 
1840 — Joseph B. Hibbard, Thomas A. Clark, Vine Smith. 
1841 — Thomas A. Clark, Vine Smith, Levi C. Corning. 
1842 — Henry R. Robbins, John Grant, Bishop Burnham. 
1843 — Henry R. Robbins, John Grant, Elijah Rathbun. 
1844 — Henry R. Robbins, William C. Cutler, Joseph B. Prentice. 
1845 — Joseph B. Prentice, William C. Cutler, Ansel Brown. 
1846 — Ansel Brown, Chauncey K. Bushnell, Ebenezer Lyon. 
1847 — Ebenezer Lyon, Jabez L. Benjamin, George P. Harvey. 
1848 — Ebenezer Lyon, Jabez L. Benjamin, Ezekiel Bromley. 
1849 — Jabez L. Benjamin, Nathan P. Bishop, Levi P. Branch. 
1850 — Nathan P. Bishop, Squire B. Brown, Asahel L. Prentice. 
1 85 1 — Jabez L. Benjamin, John Grant, Isaac S. Geer. 
1852 — Jabez L. Benjamin, Isaac S. Geer, Nathan P. Bishop. 
1853 — Thomas L. Read, Norman Smith, Sanford Bromley. 
1854 — Jabez L. Benjamin, Isaac S. Geer, Nathan P. Bishop. 
1855 — Asher P. Brown, George J. Lawton, Eleazer Bushnell. 
185(3 — Asher P. Brown, George J. Lawton, Eleazer Bushnell. 
1857 — George J. Lawton, Eleazer Bushnell, Sanford Bromley. 
1858 — Asher P. Brown, Daniel L. Lovett, Henry Lyon. 
1859 — Jabez L. Benjamin, Thomas F. Standish, Jeremiah K. Adams. 
i860 — Eleazer Bushnell, Jeremiah K. Adams, Henry Lyon. 
1861 — Jeremiah K. Adams. George L. Haskell, Benjamin W. Pal- 
mer. 
1862 — Henry Lyon, Benjamin W. Palmer, Samuel B. Gardner. 
1863 — Samuel B. Gardner, George N. Carr, Charles Bennett. 
1864 — Eleazer Bushnell, Charles Bennett, Charles J. Bromley. 
1865 — Eleazer Bushnell, Charles J. Bromley, Charles Bennett. 
1866 — Henrv Lyon, Charles J. Bromley, Charles Hyde. 
1867 — Henry Lyon, Charles J. Bromley, Charles Hyde. 
1868 — Henrv Lyon, Charles J. Bromley, Charles Hyde. 
1869 — Henry Lyon, Jeremiah K. Adams, Charles Hyde. 
1870 — Jabez' L. Benjamin, Jeremiah K. Adams, Edmund F. Tracy. 
1871— Eleazer Bushnell, Russell W. Fitch, Augustus F. Read. 
1872 — Eleazer Bushnell, Russell W. Fitch, Augustus F. Read. 
1873 — Thomas A. Clark, Benjamin G. Hull, Eben F. Yerrington. 



76 

874 — John F. Hewett, Jeremiah K. Adams, James B. Palmer. 
875 — Jeremiah K. Adams, Henry G. Palmer, James B. Palmer. 
876 — Henry G. Palmer, Cornelius Murphy, Edwin Kimball. 
877 — Russell W. Fitch, Cornelius Murphy, Edwin Kimball 
878 — Jabez L. Benjamin, Russell W. Fitch, George Robinson. 
879, — Russell W. Fitch, Charles J. Bromley, George Robinson. 
880 — Edward C. Hyde, Charles J. Bromley, George Robinson. 
881 — Edward C. Hyde, Russell W. Fitch, James H. Kennedy. 
882 — Russell W. Fitch, Edward C. Hyde, James H. Kennedy. 
883 — Cornelius Murphy, Edward C. Hyde, James H. Kennedy. 
884 — Cornelius Murphy, Joseph H. Giddings, Daniel M. Browne. 
885 — Cornelius Murphy, Russell W. Fitch, Jeremiah K. Adams. 
886 — Russell W. Fitch, Augustus F. Read, James H. Kennedy. 
887 — Augustus F. Read. Thomas D. Phillips, Jeremiah K. Adams. 
888— Augustus F. Read, Edgar Wall, Edward C. Hyde. 
889 — Russell W. Fitch, John Murphy, Jeremiah K. Adams. 
890 — Augustus F. Read, George A. Ross, John G. Bromley. 
891— George G. Young, Jeremiah K. Adams, Charles E. Lyon. 
892 — James H. Kennedy, Charles B. Bromley, James E. Roberts. 
893 — James H. Kennedy, James E. Roberts, Thomas D. Phillips. 
894 — James H. Kennedy, James E. Roberts, Thomas D. Phillips. 
895 — James H. Kennedy, Thomas D. Phillips, Andrew A. Adams. 
896 — James H. Kennedy, Andrew A. Adams, Luther C. Gray. 
897 — Henry Lyon, Michael J. Connell, James H. Kennedy. 
898 — Henry Lyon, Andrew A. Adams, Thomas D. Phillips. 
8 ( J9 — James H. Kennedy, Michael J. Connell, Henry Lyon. 
900 — James H. Kennedy, Michael J. Connell, John Spencer. 
90 1 — John G. Bromley, John Spencer, Michael J. Connell. 
902 — John G. Bromley, Russell W. Fitch, John Spencer. 



Before Lisbon was separated from Norwich, Newent furnished 
for selectmen of Norwich Joseph Perkins, 1736, and Robert Kins- 
man, 1725 to 1728, and probably others. 



Authors and Editors whose Birthplace was Lisbon. 

David Hale, editor Journal of Commerce, New York. 
Eleazer Lord, New York, writer on Prophesy, etc. 
David Nevins Lord, editor Literary and Theological Review. 
Charles Jewett, poetry, temperance, etc. 

Hezekiah Lord Read, editor of agricultural journals, and author 
of works on agriculture, etc. 



CHAPTER VI. 



A Record of Some Living Natives of Lisbon Follows, with 
a Few who have Recently Died. 

Giles Potter. — On the rolls of officials in the State of Con- 
necticut we find Giles Potter. He is designated as agent of the State 
Board of Education. He was born in Lisbon, Connecticut, February 
22, 1829; son of Elisha Payne and Abigail ( Lathrop ) Potter: of 
good Puritan stock. He is a graduate of Yale College, class of 
1855, and took honors in mathematics and the sciences. He has 
been in the service of the State for more than thirty years, which 
is a longer period officially than that of any person now living in the 
State. He is sometimes called the State's Truant Officer, whose 
duty it is to enforce the school laws, investigating cases of violations 
of these enactments, either by parents or manufacturers who employ 
children under age. 

He now resides in Xew Haven, and has about thirty towns in 
Middlesex, Fairfield and Xew Haven counties under his super- 
vision ; formerly his duties were over the whole State, but the 
increase of work to accomplish the end desired has been met by 
a late law making four agents for the State at the present time, 
of which he is one and the oldest in official service. 

Air. Potter taught school at East Hartford and the Connecticut 
Literary Institution in Suffield, and at the School Academy at 
Essex, where he afterwards made his home for several years ; was 
there made deacon of his church, superintendent of the Sabbath- 
school for twenty-three years, and represented that town in the 
Legislature three terms. 



Elisha Lathrop Potter. — In connection with Mr. Giles Potter's 
brief history, it is fitting that mention should be made of his brother 
Elisha. He was born in Lisbon, August 5, 1827; died in Brooklyn, 
X. Y.. April 21, 1880. In that large city of comparative strangers 
to him he had made his home a few years prior to his death. He was 
loved and appreciated by all who came in contact with him. was 
made superintendent of the Brooklyn Sunday-school Union, and 
his memoriam obituary speaks of him as a great loss to his pastor, 
church members, and Sabbath-school scholars, all of whom lamented 
his untimely death with great sorrow and gave him a public funeral 
and a suitable monument to perpetuate his memory. 



78 

Nathan Lee Bishop, son of Nathan Perkins Bishop and 
Nancy Lee, who was a granddaughter of Rev. Andrew Lee,D.D.,was 
born in Lisbon, served in the War of the Rebellion over three years ; 
enlisting as a private, he served as a first lieutenant and adjutant 
of his regiment, and was promoted to be a captain, but declined the 
commission. He is at present Superintendent of the Public Schools 
in Norwich, Conn., which official position he has held now nearly 
twenty-five years with great credit. 



Elijah Rathbun, Jr., a highly esteemed man of Lisbon, a self- 
made man ; from his early boyhood he was a farmer, learned the 
trade of a mason, subsequently became a trader in produce at 
Boston and Chicago. His successful career closed a few years 
since with ripeness of age and richness of character, well illustrated 
in his benevolent interest in Christian work and exemplary life. 



One of the later conspicuous residents of Lisbon was the late 
Hezekiah L. Reade, who died recently, aged seventy-five years. 
He died in the house in which he was born, called the Owaneco 
Homestead. This farm was purchased by Mr. Reade's ancestors in 
1640 from Owaneco, who was a half-brother of Uncas, chief of the 
Mohegans. Mr. Reade was appreciated beyond the narrow limits 
of Lisbon, although always living in the town. He was respected as 
an itinerant or evangelistic preacher. He was a successful manu- 
facturer of paper ; he had the credit of establishing the Jewett City 
Savings Bank, and was its President for almost thirty years. He 
was a writer and publisher of several books, and up to the close of 
his life a newspaper correspondent, whose contributions always 
found ready acceptance by the press. 



Joseph Carr Hebbard was born in Lisbon ; son of Capt. 
Joseph Hebbard ; he removed to Kansas early in life and became 
an influential citizen of that State. He was quite prominent in poli- 
tics, was very good authority in all governmental statistics, and was 
duly appreciated by Kansas Congressmen, one of whom he served 
as a private secretary for several sessions. He died recently. 



Bishops in Lisbon. 



Besides those of the Ipswich settlers, Samuel and John, who 
were brothers and closely allied with the Perkinses as early settlers 
in Lisbon, there was a later emigration to Lisbon of four Bishops 
(brothers) not connected on this side of the water with the ancestry 
of the earlier ones, Samuel and John, who also became intermixed 
with the Perkinses. 



79 

It will be seen that four brothers came from the Island of 
Guernsey to Lisbon and vicinity — John, Ebenezer, Daniel, and Na- 
thaniel. The two first settled in Lisbon, one other in New Haven, 
and one near New London. 



The descendants of John Bishop : 

i. John. 

2. Samuel, who married in 1770. 

3. Daniel Lathrop. born 1777. 

4. Samuel Perkins, born 1807. who has four sons now living: 
[5. Daniel Lathrop, born 1847: 5. Henry Hunter, born 1852; 
5. Edward Perkins, born 1859: 5. Newton Perkins, born 1865.] 

The following' letter, from ( 5 ) Daniel Lathrop Bishop, speaks 
of his father's death last year at the age of ninety-four years. He 
was the oldest banker then known in the world, as was claimed by 
the Cincinnati papers : 

Cincinnati. O., May 28, 1903. 
Dr. Henry F. Bishop, 332 E. 88th St., New York, N. Y. 

Dear Sir: — I have come across your letter of April 13, 1902, relating 
to genealogy of the Bishop family. At that time I advised you I would 
reply when I had the time to look over my father's papers. For some time 
I was so busy that I had no convenient time, and afterwards the matter 
was forgotten. Finding vour letter I have taken up the subject. I do not 
find any documents relating to the family that are in the nature of records. 
I have found in a book of pamphlets on some inserted leaves memoranda 
relating to Bishops, Perkins, and other families of our connection. 

From this I fear that we are not as you suppose descended from the 
Ipswich Bishops. 

I will, however, give you the names of descendants of my great-great- 
grandfather. John Bishop, as noted in the memoranda, as it may be of 
service to you in case the items have reached you from any other source, 
as in your pamphlet you state there are many Samuel Bishops (page 39). 

I will bring the list down to the present day as far as I am able. 

Bishop — Four brothers emigrated from the Island of Guernsey. John 
and Ebenezer settled in Lisbon, Connecticut ; Daniel and Nathaniel settled, 
one in New Haven, the other near New London. Connecticut. 

Samuel, son of John Bishop, ^^St. October 23, 1770, married Mercy John- 
son, daughter of Stephen Johnson of Preston, Connecticut. He died January 
14. 1793. His wife died October 16, 1833. (I do not know where Samuel died. 
but as my great-grandmother Mercy married a second husband- — Hough of 
Bozrah, Conn. — it was probably in Norwich neighborhood. Mercy, his wife, 
died in Ithaca. N. Y.) 

The children of Samuel and 5S^ Bishop were : 

BORN DIED MARRIED 

Daniel Nov. 24, 1772. .Sept. 24, 1775 

Samuel Oct. 24. 1773.. Sept. 27. 1775 

Mary Oct. 30,1775 Kinney, lived at South 

Hero, Vt. 

^.,r, ^ %r -l. n o o f(i) Jan. 2, 1805, Lucy Perkins 

Daniel Lathrop. Oct. 20. 1777- -March 26, 1848. jj^ J l82 ^ Elizabeth p er kins 

Temperance Dec. 18, 1779- -Aug. 9, 1873 



tV c 



8o 

HORN DIED MARRIED 

Deborah ...... .Nov. 26, 1781 Boardman. Lived at Grand 

Isle, Vt. 

Lorice Feb. iS. 1783 M. Downer, of Bozrah, Conn. 

Mercy March 12. 1785 Williams. 

Sarah May 24, 1787. . .July 18, 1832. . .Abr. Shepard, of Colchester, 

Conn. 
Jedediah June 5, 1789. . .April 9, 1791 

Daniel Lathrop Bishop and Lucy Perkins, horn August 7, 1780; died 
February 27, 1817 (daughter of Simeon Perkins and Elizabeth (Young) 
Hadley), were married January 2, 1805, at Liverpool, Nova Scotia. (Simeon 
Perkins formerly lived in Norwich, Conn., and moved to Liverpool in 1762.) 

The children of Daniel Lathrop and Lucy were : 

BORN DIED MARRIED 

Henry Young . . . .Oct. 5, 1S05. .Jan. 21, 1817 

Samuel Perkins. . .June 12, 1807.. Feb. 1, 1902.. Oct. 7. 1841, Elizabeth Hunt- 
er Hoge. 
Elizabeth Perkins. Aug. 16, 1809.. Nov. 14, 1869.. March, 1831. J. Newton Per- 
kins (her cousin). 
Mary Johnson ... .Dec. 19, 181 1.. Dec. 16, 1847. .James Thompson. 
Daniel Edward . .May 22, 1813. . Aug. 13, 1814 

f(i) 1S45, Eliza Low Isaacs. 
Daniel Edward (2). Aug. 21, i8i5..Dec 29, 1899.. - (2) Oct. 24, 1893, Ada Eliza 

( Richards. 

Samuel Perkins Bishop and Elizabeth (born March 27, 1822; died 
December 24, 1896) Hunter Hoge (daughter of Rev. John Blair Hoge and 
Ann Kean Hunter of Martinsburg, Va.) were married at Cincinnati, O., 
October 7, 1841. 

Their children were : 

BORN DIED MARRIED 

John Hoge Feb. 13, 1844.. Jan. 2, 1846 

Daniel Lathrop.. .March 11, 1847.* Nov. 17. 18S5. Caroline K. 

Stanley. 

Lucy Perkins Nov. 28, 1849. . Feb. 27, 1855 

Henry Hunter April 30, 1S52. .+ Sept. 4, 1874. Florence Nelson. 

Samuel Perkins . .Jan. 5, 1855. .June 14, 1855 

Anna Hoge Aug. 2, 1856. .Oct. 9, 1879 

Edward Perkins. .Aug. 31, 1859.4 Sept. 1, 18S5, Ella P. Hutch- 
inson. 

Newton Perkins .. May 29, 1865.. § Sept. 29, 1S92, May Darling. 

Daniel Lathrop Bishop and Caroline K. Stanley, born October 20, i860, 
daughter of Rev. Augustin O. Stanley and Rebecca Dowdell Stanley, were 
married at Cincinnati November 17, 1885. 

Their children : 

BORN DIED 

Caro. Elizabeth June 2, 1888 May 12, 1889 

James Stanley Nov. 6, 1 890 

Elizabeth Hoge Dec. io, 1893 March 16, 1895 



*Living at Cincinnati, O. tLiving at Decatur, 111. 

tLiving at Cleveland, O. §Living at Cleveland, O. 



Daniel Lathrop Bishop graduated from Woodward High School in 
1864. Was in a bank for seven years and thirty-one years with Cincinnati 
Gas Co., resigning as Purchasing Agent in August, 1902. 

Henry Hunter Bishop on September 4, 1874. was married at Xenia, O., 
to Florence Amelia Nelson, born June 7, 1852 ; died July 10, 1880. 

Their children were : 

BORN DIED MARRIED 

Carrie Hunter July 5, 1875 Jay Scott Clark. 

Roy Nelson Jan. 20, 1S7S 

Florence Nelson. .May 10, 1880. .July 31, 1S80 

Carrie Hunter Bishop Clark has one child, Florence Jenny, born at 
Toledo, O., September 4, 1902. 

Henry H. Bishop graduated from Woodward High School of Cincinnati 
in 1868. Engaged in mercantile pursuits in Cincinnati from 1868 to 1875. I n 
wholesale hardware at Decatur, Ills., from November, 1875, to April 1, 1887. 
Since that date to present time in Cleveland, O., in wholesale hardware. 

Roy Nelson Bishop was educated at University School of Cleveland, 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. Leaving in Sophomore year to enlist in 
Troop A, First O. V. Cavalry for Spanish-American War. After discharge, 
in November, 1898, entered Columbia University, New York, and received 
degree as Engineer of Mines October, 1902. Now pursuing that profession. 

Edward Perkins Bishop was married September 1, 1885, at Lebanon, 
O., to Ella Parsons Hutchinson ; born March 14, 1859. 

Their children were: 

BORN DIED 

Helen Adelia March 31, 1S87 

Edward Hutchinson Nov. 17, 1S91 

William Hunter March 2, 1890 March 5, 1890 

Edward P., after graduation from Woodward High School, engaged 
in business in Cincinnati as bookkeeper until January, 1881, when he re- 
moved to Decatur, 111. Is now Treasurer of Wholesale Hardware Co. 
(Morehouse & Wells Co.). 



Newton Perkins Bishop was married at Cincinnati, O., September 29, 
1892, to May Darling. 

Their daughter Dorothy May was born April 30, 1899, at Cleveland, O. 

Since graduating from Woodward High School. Cincinnati, Newton 
P. has held clerical positions in Cincinnati, O., Chicago, 111., and Cleveland, O. 

You mention that Mrs. Jno. H. Converse gave you some valuable facts, 
and I presume that she advised you as to her two brothers and one sister still 
living. 

Was she able to say whether we are descended from the Ipswich family, 
which, as I stated, seems to me to be doubtful? If you should issue 
another pamphlet would be glad to receive a copy, and one of my brothers 
expressed the same desire. 

I am a little in doubt as to correctness of the dates of birth and death 
of my aunt Mary J. Thompson (Mrs. Converse's mother), but no doubt 
you have the right ones from her. 

Regretting that I have not replied to you sooner, and that even this 
letter has been delayed by interruptions since I started it. I am 

Yours very truly, 

DANIEL LATHROP BISHOP. 

D. L. Bishop, 2345 Kemper Lane, Cincinnati, O. 
June 11, 1903. 



82 

The following letter discloses the fact that success can follow in 
special lines, as has been often proved in Lisbon, where the soil 
seemed not the best, but rocky and unpromising. Experiments have 
shown that mulberry trees for making silk, apple and peach trees 
for culture of fruit, have rewarded such efforts: 

Round Hill Farm, Norwich, May 2, 1903. 
To Mr. Henry F. Bishop, New York. 

My Dear Sir: — Yours at hand. In reply, will say I went in for blooded 
stock seventeen years ago when I had a debt of $9,000 on my farm. I paid 
$600 for two cows and $100 for a bull six months old; also $150 for three 
sheep. This was my foundation of a herd and flock. Since then I have 
bought and sold both cattle and sheep in most every State. Have shipped 
stock to Illinois, to California, and to Kansas. I have sold cows for $250, 
and bulls for $200; lots of sheep for $20 and $30 each. Have shown stock 
in all the leading fairs in New England for the past twelve years, and won 
many thousand dollars, besides medals, both gold, silver, and bronze. In 
fact my stock has nearly paid the debt I owed. I have on my 160-acre farm 
fifty-two head of stock, mostly Guernseys, and over 100 sheep and lambs, 
all pure bred, and the sheep would readily bring $15 each. I have a buck 
and two ewes that cost me $87.60 last fall. I have four breeds of registered 
sheep — Dorsets, Shropshires, Southdowns and Merinos. I use a machine to 
shear them and this week have sheared twenty-seven in four hours, and 
this without as much as a scratch, as would have been made by the shears. 
I have cows now that I could sell for $200; calves for $50. Have cows with 
butter record of 16 and 18 lbs. in seven days. I have taken over $200 in 
prizes at New London County fair each year for four years. I believe it 
a nice thing for any young man to be in debt, as he has an object in view, 
and will get a hustle on him. 

If these statements are of any good to you or the old town, you are 
quite welcome to them. 

Yours with respect, 

J. B. PALMER. 

The following letter has been received from Rev. Edwin Brad- 
ford Robinson, who was settled in Lisbon as pastor. He has always 
been greatly beloved by all her people, and remembered throughout 
that whole vicinity for his eloquent talents in doing good, Christian 
work. His personal magnetism has had much to do with "inaug- 
urating" a new day "for Lisbon." 

171 Cabot St., Holyoke, Mass., May 27, 1903. 

My Dear Mr. Bishop: — Your holy labor of preserving the history of 
Lisbon wins my profound appreciation. An honorable history is a valuable 
asset. Lisbon is unspeakably rich in her history. 

Turning from the hoary past to the living present I must recall the 
lines of Wordsworth — 

"Those beauteous forms, 
Through a long absence, have not been to me 
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye ; 
But oft in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din 
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them 
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet 
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart 
With tranquil restoration." 



§3 

The years can never efface the imprint of "the little, nameless, unre- 
membered acts of kindness and of love" that helped to make the "manse" the 
"sparrow's nest" which Mrs. Browne would term it. 

Our daughter remembers with pride that Lisbon was her birthplace. 

A forward look. I am confident that your book will be the means of 
accomplishing these results: 

First — The completion of the repairs on the church building. 

Second — A renewed interest in the old town and a feeling of respon- 
sibility for her spiritual, social and material interests. 

Third — A spirit of enterprise in the Lisbon of to-day. 

I am thankful that for more than three years I labored in Newent 
Parish and had some part in inaugurating the new day which your book 
will usher in. 

Very cordially yours, 

EDWIN BRADFORD ROBINSON. 

The following letter came from Rev. Tyler Eddy Gale, who 
has supplied the Newent pulpit during the last year: 

4 Downing Street, Worcester, Mass., June 5, 1903. 
Mr. H. F. Bishop. 

My Dear Mr. Bishop: — Your kind note of May 30th is at hand. My con- 
nection with the Newent Church has come to an end, but I still feel very 
vitally interested in its welfare, and I should be very glad indeed to go on 
record as appreciative in the history of Lisbon you are so self-sacrificingly 
preparing. The year I have spent as acting pastor of the Newent church 
has been the happiest of my life. The sturdy ancestry behind the Lisbon 
people, and their helpful interest in the future progress of society, unite to 
make them men and women of whom one is proud to call by the name of 
friends. In this time, when the social conditions of New England's small 
towns are so generally condemned, the presence in a community of a religious 
and social institution of the stability and force of the Newent church is a 
happy warrant for optimism as to that community's future. Worthily con- 
servative, nobly progressive, it guarantees Lisbon's fidelity to the best ideals 
of New England. May its future be bright in the truth of the past it reveres, 
the future advancement it hopes for, the God it worships, and the gospel it 
preaches ! 

If I can be of any service whatever to you in your work, do not hesitate 
to call upon me. 

Very truly yours, 

TYLER E. GALE. 

Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, 
D. C, gives the following response to my letter asking information 
of him. 

Air. Wilson, as is well known, was called to serve in the Cabinet 
of the late President McKinley, and he is now serving in President 
Roosevelt's Cabinet, and is highly honored by all those who know 
him through the whole country. 

Department of Agriculture, Office of the Secretary, 
Washington. D. C.. May 4, 1903. 
Dr. H. F. Bishop, 312-322 East 88th St., New York City. 

Dear Sir: — I have your letter of May 1st. I was fifteen years old when 
my father, in 1851, moved from Scotland to Connecticut. We lived on a 
farm on the Quinabaug River, a little above the tunnel. You remember 
the Shetucket joins the Quinabaug a little below the tunnel. We went 



84 

to Lisbon to church regularly every Sunday ; and there we listened to dear 
old Dr. Nelson, who had preached a long time — if I remember rightly, well 
on toward a half-century. My father was a devout Christian man, and saw 
to it that we went to church regularly ; and not only that, but to mid-week 
prayer meetings also, in the houses of the farmers around. This enabled 
me to get an inside knowledge of the excellence of Connecticut families that I 
have never forgotten. I went to the district school in winter, where, I 
remember, Daniel Hyde was teacher. Later I went to the high school in 
Greenville. Those quaint neighborhoods in Connecticut have produced grand 
men, who have done much for the whole country. Their thorough knowledge 
of local self-government has extended westward, and is now being intro- 
duced into the islands of the Orient. I have always had a deep-seated 
affection for the State of Connecticut. 

Very truly yours, 

JAMES WILSON, 
Secretary. 

A more extended correspondence with native Lisbonites and 
their descendants would have furnished much more in general in- 
terest to have enriched the publication of this work ; but limitations 
must draw a line even if injustice is done to some who get no op- 
portunity to be heard. Among those not heard from. United States 
Senator Perkins of California is one. The New York Press has 
said of him within a few days past : "He was reared on a farm 
and had limited educational qualifications. Many a stone fence he 
helped to build and many a field he mowed in the meridian sun." 
Of such material is this genuine old colonial stock of Lisbon com- 
posed that they can arise to useful positions as statesmen and coun- 
sellors, as well as companions and advisers to those elected to 
govern this great Republic. 



^&mntcticni 




WHO TRANSPLANTED SUSTAINS" 

'Lives there a man with soul so dead 
That never to himself has said — 
This is my own, my native land." 



THE END 



OCT 16 1903 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 111 882 1 ^ 



